Interesting listening to reactions in sports media today about the tournament.
Consensus takeaways:
everyone always hates it when cinderellas make it to the second weekend, then fall flat. We heard it in the CFP too, and ironically Tennessee fell flat in both, but it’s crickets in terms of the reaction to their failures. You’ll never convince me that a team from nowhere wouldn’t have been as compelling. The ESPN talkers were all screaming about how bad the CFP first round games were, then they’re nowhere to be found when the only decent elite 8 game is tech-Florida. Why? Because they were big brand teams on the losing end.
The ratings are telling us ‘see, everyone wants the big brands!’ This might be true, but the event didn’t get dubbed ‘Madness’ because it was all chalk. As someone who’s of the age that grew up as the tourney was exploding, I question a future of it relegating Cinderella to only an occasional first round win.
The portal and NIL has changed it forever. Bb used to be the sport where a Butler could have an experienced team with maybe one difference maker and that’d be enough to win a couple of games versus a team with young McD’s AA’s. Butler won’t have those guys anymore, they’re gone to the power schools. So a Butler’s now playing a blueblood who’s bought up the best talent in their league as well as other mid majors.
Maybe gambling will keep the interest there, but I don’t consider it the same type of interest compared to just loving the game. Maybe I’m yelling at clouds and time is passing me by, but after watching a ton of the tourney this year it kinda sickens me to see the constant annual free agency structure that only benefits the rich.
