NCAA Tournament scores notwithstanding college basketball’s flaws
ESPN will form Kentucky’s John Calipari subsequent month in a documentary “One and Not Done,” that explores how a argumentative manager has capitalized on a supposed “one and done” rule, that treats college basketball like a passing stopover for stars en track to a pros.
Yet if a complement that has existed for a final 12 years has shop-worn a sport, as some analysts and coaches interviewed for a plan contend, a NCAA Tournament has remained mostly unscathed, an almost-perfect media erect among such championship events.
Part of that has to do with a tournament’s “sudden death” format, a “win or go home” regulation that creates each diversion a high-stakes exercise. The 68-team margin also provides millions of fans opposite a nation a rooting (and not incidentally, gambling) interest, with CBS carrying ingeniously partnered with Turner Sports to make each early competition accessible opposite mixed channels.
(CNNMoney, like Turner Broadcasting, is owned by Time Warner.)
In a way, possessing medium believe of college basketball usually enhances a contest experience, during slightest in a opening rounds. One needn’t be quite conversant in a schools to know that a No. 2 seed personification opposite a No. 15 is a David-and-Goliath-type struggle, formulating huge play when one of a underdogs wins.
Never mind that a inconsistency between tip teams and obtuse ones has been diluted by a one-and-done formula, or that a peculiarity of movement has discontinued since many of a best players pierce on to a NBA so quickly.
The extraordinary partial about a contest is that for a few weeks each year, a fad that surrounds it generally dispatches a visit gripes intended during college basketball, epitomised in a title that flashes opposite a shade during a Calipari documentary proclaiming him “The Sleaziest Coach in a Sleazy Game.”
Veteran manager Jim Calhoun, for one, is among those interviewed for “One and Not Done” who lamentation a stream state of a game, observant that college hoops would be “so most some-more stable” but a shake that a benefaction attribute with a NBA has introduced.
For his part, Calipari — described by a former actor as “someone who could speak a starving dog off a beef truck” — is unashamed about carrying embraced and even exploited “one and done” to attract tip talent. Nor does he seem endangered about complaints per a existent system, or a idea that a ideal of “student-athletes” has turn generally tough to swallow.
“Is it about preparation or jobs?” Calipari asks.
Last year, CBS and Turner announced an eight-year, $8.8-billion agreement extension with a NCAA, lengthening their contest rights by 2032. That’s a flattering clever gamble that a eventuality will stay must-watch programming, with a NCAA observant a understanding would yield a membership fortitude during “a time when a radio media landscape is experiencing fast change.”
Whatever a flaws, for a subsequent few weeks NCAA basketball should still demeanour like a abounding enterprise. And interjection to a tournament’s continuance as a business proposition, design a game’s stupidity — on some-more than one turn — to continue marching on.
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