The Duke Blue Devils celebrate their 68-63 win over Wisconsin in the NCAA National Championship game on April 6 in Indianapolis.
Credit: Courtesy of TNS
Is March Madness getting stale? Patrick Kalista of The Lantern states, that to bring more excitement to the tournament, changes need to be made. He suggests no more automatic bids. Teams need to play their way into the tournament. Yet, wouldn’t that ruin parity even more. Less chance for upsets? Teams that didn’t quite match the level of the Kentucky or Duke still get a shot to surprise everyone. Yes, we want competition, challenges, surprises. That’s what makes the bracket fun. Do we like the big boys playing against each other? Yes. However, the excitement starts with the Bo-Diddley Tech’s getting in and having a chance.
By Patrick Kalista:
“Now that March Madness has come to an end, I would like to reflect on how maddening the tournament actually was, and why college basketball is turning into an unflattering product.
Upsets are a huge part of what makes college basketball worth watching in March. This year, however, they were hard to come by.
Besides the two 14-seeds that pulled off upsets in the first round, nothing stood out to me as far as exciting or mind-blowing. The streak of a 12-seed beating a five was broken this year. It’s the first time since 2007 that a 12-seed didn’t advance to the round of 32, and that was disappointing.
Kentucky losing might have been shocking to most, but I have come to expect that from a team filled with inexperienced players and a coach, John Calipari, who has come up short of a title in more than one occurrence.
Which leads into my next NCAA basketball frustration. The one-and-done rule is hurting the sport more than ever and is something the NCAA really needs to look into for the benefit of the sport.”
Source: Opinion: NCAA needs to make changes to college basketball | The Lantern
