tonytalkssports My Take on Sports, particularly the Yankees, Maple Leafs and Browns

Let The Madness Begin – Why Basketball and Not Football?

Well the brackets are out and all around the country everyone will be busily filling them out.  The NCAA Basketball tournament has turned into a national event.  People book off work on Thursday and Friday afternoon of the now second round games(more on that in a minute).  Retail stores advertise March Madness sales.  And how many sports bars will have some type of specials going on from Thursday through Sunday of this week.

I love the tournament.  Especially when a St. Mary's upsets a Villanova.  In fact, its the most compelling part of the tournament when the upstart knocks off a perennial power.  That's why I enjoy the early rounds even more than the Championship game.  And I think its safe to say that the NCAA Basketball tournament is far more popular than the NBA playoffs.  So with all this popularity and all of this interest for basketball, why wouldn't there be the same excitement for an NCAA Football playoff??  The answer: there would be.

Of course, the holier-than-thou folks who run the NCAA and the head-in-the clouds school presidents mouth the concern that it would put an undue hardship on these college kid athletes.  Please, give me a break.

I guess there isn't as much concern for the college basketball athlete as there is for the college football athlete.  It's plain flat out garbage.  Moreover, its plain flat out greed.  The NCAA and the schools are all about the money.  That's why we now have 4 play-in games for the basketball tournament which is now called the First Round.  What a joke!!!  These teams have has much chance of winning the tournament as I do owning the Toronto Maple Leafs.  But you know damn well that the NCAA will reel in big money for the four games from the new television deal that has CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV(are you kidding me)  broadcasting games. (Remember the good old days of ESPN coverage!!)

The NCAA big-wigs and school presidents also don't want to give up the lucrative paydays that they get for the over 30 bowl games that now litter our Decembers and Januarys.  What a joke!!!  6-6 teams making a bowl game.  The fact remains that you could use existing bowl games to establish a playoff set-up with the eventual champion being decided at one of the major bowl games.

This has been a topic of discussion of discussion for years.  Even the President has weighed in on it.  But it doesn't matter.  Can you imagine the week between the NFL Conference Championship games and the Super Bowl a NCAA Football Championship Game???  It would be as popular as the Super Bowl.

Oh well, I can dream on.  I'll have my March Madness predictions on Friday.  Until then, good luck on your brackets.