Categories: LIFESTYLE

March Madness is Overrated

Well here we are again. It’s the end of the college basketball season and the tournament is here. A tournament where a champion is crowned. A single game elimination format that will be full of buzzer beating shots, upsets, and never ending bracketology.

It’s all so exciting, but for the wrong reasons.

The biggest flaw in this system is the amount of teams. The amount of teams have been increasing for decades unlike other sports. From 1960 to 1974 only 25 total teams made the tournament, until 1975 when it was increased to 32 teams. That’s when only the best teams in the country were invited. Then in 1979 the field was increased to 40 teams, next year 48 teams. By 1985 the tournament increased continued to 64 teams.

From 1978 to 1985, the amount of teams in the tournament doubled from 32 to 64.

The problem with so many teams is it makes the regular season pointless. Why should average sports fans care about the regular season when currently 68 teams make the playoff tournament anyway? That’s what makes the NFL and NBA so special. Only 12 NFL teams and only 16 NBA teams make their sports playoffs. Earning a playoff spot should be something limited, something that is hard fought for, not something that 68 teams are capable of making.

With so many teams in the tournament, skill level, coaching, and talent are all brought to a lower level.

We all remember the 1979 Final between Michigan State and Indiana State. The beginning of Larry Bird vs Magic Johnson. Or the 1983 Jim Valvano led North Carolina State cinderella team. We also have great memories of Michael Jordan hitting the champion winning shot for UNC. But those days are over. The days of Hakeem Olajuwan, Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird playing three years of college ball are a thing of the past.

And that is pretty much the theme with college basketball lately. It’s watered down.

Some of the best players didn’t go to college in the late 90s and early 2000s. Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dwight Howard, Tracy Mcgrady, Andrew Bynmun, Yao Ming, you get the point. If the best basketball players in the country don’t play at the college level than how can we watch the best players at the collegiate level. Easy, we can’t. Even now with a 1 year mandatory limit it still isn’t what it used to be.

If players want to leave college for the NBA after just one year that’s their choice and their right. But it still doesn’t take away from the fact that March Madness is flawed. With so many teams and a pointless regular season you would think the NCAA would at least make the tournament unblemished.

The regions and locations are completely random. Random. That’s pretty much what college basketball has turned into, complete randomness. Random teams get placed into random regions and then play at random locations. Random Madness. The Carolina Tarheels have never played the Duke Blue Devils in the NCAA tournament ever. How is that for tournament placement?

Then there’s the problem of location. This year No. 12 California will vs No. 5 UNLV, in California! But of course nobody has a problem with this, it’s just part of “March Madness.” Again college basketball regular season has become pointless. UNLV is ranked No. 5 in its region, they hold a 25-9 record and they already beat California this season. But the California Golden Bears will get home court advantage. Unbelievable.