Enjoy Your NCAA Brackets; Problems Can Wait
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By DERON SNYDER
The brackets for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament have been filled, meaning we can forget about the regular season … except it seems to be forgotten nowadays way before Selection Sunday.
Once the bubbles burst and arguments about who did/didn’t get in die down, the tournament itself should be fine. It consistently produces some of the most drama, excitement and raw emotion that sports can offer. But while the final destination remains enjoyable, the road in getting there is a growing concern.
This might be the wrong time to mention college basketball’s problems, such as dwindling attendance, mediocre teams and limited stars. We’re still digesting where teams are headed and their potential matchups en route to New Orleans. We don’t want to hear about “saturation” and “overexposure” right now. At this time of the year, we relish the opportunity to see every game.
Conference tournaments continue to serve as tasty appetizers, giving us flavorful upsets this season in the SEC, Big East, Big 12 and ACC. The nation’s top four teams going in — Kentucky, Syracuse, Kansas and North Carolina — were dumped by Vanderbilt, Cincinnati, Baylor and Florida State, respectively. No. 7 Ohio State and No. 8 Michigan State engaged in a delightful, back-and-forth tilt for the Big Ten championship, before the Spartans prevailed to earn the final No. 1 seed.
But even those tourneys seem to have lost some luster in recent years. Barely a handful of teams are capable of playing their way into the main event, while the power-conference heavyweights lose little ground in defeat, as evidenced by Kentucky, Syracuse and North Carolina earning No. 1 seeds.
