March Madness has been even more exciting than we typically ask for as fans, despite the Ole Miss Men’s Basketball team’s inability to seed in the tournament and the Lady Rebels’ early exit. While the upsets may not be as severe as the spectacles we witnessed last year, underdogs and medium seeds have progressed much further than anticipated.
Four-seeded Alabama Crimson Tide and their balanced attack have exceeded expectations by advancing to the Final Four for the first time in program history. Eleven-seeded NC State and D.J. Burns Jr. are the biggest Cinderella stories, besting Duke in an Elite Eight match that got away toward the end.
However, March Madness has many redeeming qualities as a televised sporting event outside of upsets. In fact, I think professional sports, especially the NBA, could learn a lot by taking notes from the 68-team collegiate tournament.
The prominence of women’s sports
The NCAA is chock-full of talented athletes in every sport. There is no exception to this rule, whether it be men’s or women’s sports or football or rowing. Any time you gather any number of teams similar in talent, you can expect to consistently see strategy and skill spark up.
So, the emergence of women’s basketball is not because all of a sudden women are competent and have learned how to dribble and shoot. Instead, the rise of the sport is due to continued exposure and investment. Look at the WNBA. While not the most financially successful business endeavor, women’s basketball as a whole is much more popular and accessible due to the commitment from television networks to broadcast the immense talent of these women. What we are seeing today regarding the discourse surrounding the sport is a culmination of decades of investment. In fact, the NBA owns and is the driving promoter of the WNBA brand.
Still, it helps that we are witnessing generational talents in NCAA Women’s Basketball. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark is the most prolific scorer in basketball right now, shredding defenses night to night on her way to becoming the leading scorer in college basketball history. Seeing Clark pick apart LSU before detonating them in the third quarter was a thing of beauty. What’s more, Clark approaches the game with a killer mentality that any hooper can appreciate.
Other stars like LSU’s Angel Reese and Southern California’s JuJu Watkins have kept fans entertained and engaged with their larger-than-life attitudes and undeniable skills on the court. I mean, Watkins looked like a prime Brandon Roy while pouring in 51 points against Stanford earlier this year. If you don’t like that, you don’t like NCAA basketball.
Fewer ads
Watching the NCAA tournament in a world where the NBA plays commercials during free throws is a godsend. It’s a look at what life should be like. Sigh.
It was not too long ago when the NBA was less money-hungry. In recent years, however, NBA game length has increased exponentially due to broadcasters constantly looking for more opportunities to show us Burger King Whopper ads.
Of course, collegiate games have ads, but they relegate many of these commercials to halftime, team timeouts and dedicated television timeouts. Even during moments that feel ad-heavy during the tournament, there is almost certainly another live game to tune into.
It doesn’t help that NBA games sometimes become annoyingly long due to official reviews which referees seem to judge incorrectly more often than not. Yes, I know what the last two-minute report suggests. However, I also have two working eyeballs — a skill that many refs envy.
Ironically, while the NBA might play the most commercials, it is not the pro sports league struggling the most with game length. That would be the MLB, which has recently sought to eliminate many of the lollygagging characteristics of baseball. I mean, the sport is literally called America’s pastime — and it does that a little too effectively.
Single-elimination
Many of the upsets we love and seek dearly are purely due to the significant variance introduced by playing a single-elimination tournament. Basically, anything can happen in one game. It’s the same reason why the NFL playoff has many unpredictable moments and draws the most viewers of any North American sport.
We are starting to see other pro sports begin to implement or promote single-elimination tournaments. The NBA introduced the In-Season Tournament this past winter to great acclaim from fans. The MLB heavily supported the World Baseball Classic last summer, too. While these tournaments have hybrid elements in which losing teams still have the opportunity for redemption, later rounds are classic sudden-death.
Finally, another major reason people love the single-elimination style of the NCAA tournament is the opportunity to hit big on bets. I think we are at a point as sports consumers where we must accept that betting drives a lot of athletics conversation and consumption. March Madness being designed the way it is renders it a bettor’s paradise with the opportunity to cash out at every turn.
Fred Williams is a junior political science and African American studies major from Greenville, Miss. Justice Rose is the opinion editor. He is a junior journalism major from Madison, Miss.
