March Madness All About Money For The NCAA

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A great many of us get excited this time of year
as March Madness and the Tournament of 64 68 is
about to begin, but at the risk of being redundant,
I can't help but get annoyed at the newest format
the NCAA has installed. As you can see I almost
wrote that there are 64 teams in this tournament
when if fact this year we go from 65 not 64 to 68.
It's obvious that the powers that be at the NCAA
felt it necessary to add a play in game a few years
ago so that one of the #16 seeds would have to earn
the right to get play a #1 seed, this still wasn't
enough. Enough what you ask? I say $Money$, they
say excitement. They even considered doubling the
size of the tournament and making it 128 teams.

The greediness here is certainly nothing new, and
nowadays it's almost expected, it's just that it
would be nice if institutions like the NCAA would
be a better example instead of standing for the
very same things they punish student athletes for,
GREEDINESS. College basketball & football create
so much revenue for schools and the NCAA it's mind
boggling, and yet whenever a student athlete is
caught trying to make a few extra dollars on the
side in a non illegal way, the NCAA punishes the
school and the athlete. It's way overdue that the
folks at the NCAA start looking in the mirror and
instead of worrying about the BCS or whether the
the tourny needs 64, 68 or 128 teams, they worry
about showing these kids a better example and also
finding a way to help them better financially.

Some of you out there may be rolling your eyes,
and wondering what the big deal is, or why I am
such a spoil sport, but this is about sports too.
When was the last time a #16 team beat a #1 seed?
You know the answer, NEVER. Will it, or could it
happen again? Sure, but it's not very likely, and
though the #15 has beaten the #2 seed four times,
the odds are still slim that this will happen again
anytime soon. These new play in games are for teams
that basically aren't even good enough to be seeded
sixteenth, so how do you expect them to provide any
thing more than a scrimmage for a #1 seed?
It's clear that this wasn't about anything other than
money, and given time you will see this tournament
either expand to the previously considered 128 team
format or another format that was considered a that
time as well, 96 teams. Welcome to the NCAA watered
down tournament of March (you to death) Madness.


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