3 Things I Don’t Like About March Madness
I love March Madness, but just like in a marriage where you love your wife, there are probably some things that you don't like about her and there are a few things I don't like about March Madness. (Don't tell my wife that!)
So even though most of what the NCAA Tournament has to offer is great for all us sports fans, here's what I don't like about it all.
1. Players Being Exploited So Suits Can Make a Bunch of Money - We all know that the NCAA Tournament is a cash cow and we also know the kids that play in the tournament get screwed when it comes to their piece of the pie. The time may never come when the right thing is done and cash is handed over to the participants of the NCAA Tournament, but as I watch the gazillions of dollars that come in from ticket sales, corporate sponsorships, TV deals and advertising, it does leave me with an unsavory feeling watching the games play out.
2. 68 Teams - I've always been one to say there is no reason to invite the peasants to the King's table and this is a prime example of that. We have way too many teams getting a chance to dance. The number of games is great for the pure fact that I get to watch hoops at 11am, but the fact that we allow 68 teams to legitimately get into a field where the winner is the national champ is dumbfounding to me. There are only about 10 elite teams each year and I would be even willing to expand that thought to say that maybe on any given year 16 teams could win a title, but all the hyperbole in the name of awarding mid majors a chance to dance with the big boys isn't a good way to hand out a title to the best team in the country. Plus, if you wanted to keep the # of games, we could set up a 3 game series among the top 16 teams and let the actual best teams compete in their own field for the national championship.
3. Commercial Breaks - They don't add more commercial breaks than any other normal nationally televised game, but the problem becomes when you have 3 or 4 games on at one time, when you are flipping back and forth it seems like you run into way more commercials than normal because you actually do... If you are watching 3 games, you will have 24 media timeouts throughout the games vs only 8 if you were watching just one game.
Don't get me wrong, this month is great and the madness is too, but if we tweaked it just a bit, we could make it even better.