This is by far my mother’s least favorite time of year- March Madness. Every year, the powers that be within the NCAA reign all unholy hell upon the unsuspecting soap opera viewership audience for a few weeks, causing a massive earful for yours truly… In fact, I’ve already loaded up on cotton balls so I can continue to hear for the remainder of the spring/year.
Oh no…
At this point every year, I lose a little more faith in humanity (similar to cost-of-living raises, only in the opposite direction) after watching a lot of athletes miss out mid-term exams, weeks of classes, and their participation around campuses…
Many colleges make the NCAA tournament and are taken to locations far away from their homes… For example, North Carolina will play their first round game in Las Vegas, Nevada (not to be confused with the booming metropolis of Las Vegas, New Mexico, host filming-city for recent Netflix acquisition, Longmire)… Good thing they aren’t under any sort of investigation for academic integrity or anything like that…
In fact, many top programs in other sports don’t take a month to step away from school to participate in their sport. Why is it so different for basketball and football?
This is not the venue to argue whether or not student-athlete treatment is fair, but being away from school as long as these athletes are is absurd. Basketball season starts with pre-season practices in October and runs through arguably the beginning of April. That’s two semesters worth of classes that these athletes are not present for…
I digress (but keep in mind the length of the season); why are certain teams allowed to participate in a post-season tournament which brings in truckloads of dollars while others are not allowed to participate? Lesser tournaments have been designed around this idea, but for the purpose of bringing in money… At that point, does the NCAA sue these tournaments for taking away from their “employees” (AKA institutions)? Or is there a way that the NCAA could increase their viewership audience while bringing in more sponsors, more games, and having a more YMCA approach to postseason play?
There is! A few years back, a show called SportsDome, a parody of SportsCenter, proposed an idea that would allow a lot more teams into the NCAA tournament (you can view this fine show by clicking here). I’m not suggesting that the NCAA allow over 4,000 teams into the NCAA tournament, but why not just make the season into a major tournament after a pro-longed preseason?
Aside from the psychological drama that would occur with a weekly elimination game, it would be very exciting for the fans. Think about it- every week is a playoff game. Every week is desperation mode. Every. Week.
What a crazy idea… It’s not like we put these athletes through the emotional/psychological/physiological gauntlet already, right? Wait…
All I’m suggesting is this- a shortened season that starts in January with conference tournaments occurring in February, and a larger NCAA tournament that lasts until April. Then, at least the season will only take away from one semester of academics and not two…
Festivus This Week
I am a very happy person this week- just found out I can get every MLS game through their streaming service for only $75! Every Portland Timbers game, every week… I’m extremely excited!
And that, my friends, is a Festivus miracle.
Yeah, this happens during Timbers’ games…
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