Fix College Basketball

Draymond Green. I know because I think he was mentioned in every AP story about the Big 10 from about 2006-12.

 

Nobody except the SEC and ACC.

 

Do you think that college basketball would be happy to adopt college baseball's model, which "works fine," and, thus, its following? Do you think ESPN would? Do you think CBS would?

 

Though he topped out early, Marcus Paige certainly fits the bill.

 

Fix college basketball? We're on it!

 

Would it be that much different than now, when the best players breeze in and out of school and there's a different cast every year?
Besides, given the choice between humping it in the D-League for a year or two and playing in college, I'm not sure getting paid to play basketball has more appeal.

 

I can't say for sure, but I think that people want to believe that they aren't watching an inferior product.

 

See, I don't think it matters that much when it comes to college sports. People cheer for laundry.
I'm in SEC country, which is why I pointed out that college baseball does have its pockets where it's insanely popular. A weekend SEC series might draw more people per game than an average basketball game. Is college baseball an inferior product to minor league baseball in terms of quality of athletes? Yeah, probably, but people don't care because it's about more than that.
If you're into the sport and have a tie to the school, you'll watch the games.

 

While we're at it, can we lose the conference tournaments as well? Makes the whole regular season worthless if the champ is upset in the first round. No other sport I can think of devalues its regular season like college basketball.

 

The conference tournaments do allow every team in D-1 to start the postseason with the theoretical chance to be national champions. That has value, I think. The conference championship tourneys in the one-bid conferences can be insanely dramatic.

 

The tournament, and the insane size of the tournament, renders the regular season largely irrelevant.

And speaking of getting rid of the stupid play-in games, how can you play into an 11 seed? If you are one of four teams in an 11-seed play-in game, aren't you theoretically better than all of the 12-16 seeds?
It doesn't make any sense.

 

I may be comparing apples and pears here, but I don't recall the Cavaliers, after knocking off Golden State, having to prove their title-worthiness by needing to defeat the Sixers. Or the Broncos the Browns.