NCAA Basketball: Will realignment ruin college basketball?

The NCAA doesn't push basketball the way it does football

Another obstacle to be overcome by hoops seems to be that of their very own governing organization, the NCAA. On the surface, it might seem weird that someone that should have the best interest of all its sports at heart would be seen as an obstacle. I’m not saying the NCAA has anything against college basketball, but I do think they are unintentionally holding the sport back. Let’s look at the advertising college football gets as soon as the season kicks off (and even before that). I’m not talking about advertising from the likes of Dr. Pepper, Home Depot, etc., I’m talking about how reminders about college football are fed to the audience ad nauseam, especially on ESPN and ABC.

Think about it, how many times are we watching something that isn’t football and suddenly there is a copy read or a graphic splashed on the screen about an upcoming game or rankings release? How often does that happen for basketball during events that aren’t basketball? Even for something like the Champion’s Classic we almost never see that event publicized outside of basketball programming.

Why is that? I don’t know how ESPN and the NCAA deal with in-program advertising like that, but it seems that if the NCAA wanted to push basketball like they do football, they could be doing more to get it on people’s minds early on than they are.