The NCAA Tournament - Opinion

I do like this time of year - especially with the NCAA basketball tournament. But, I was thinking the other day: it's certainly not the same tournament that it was 20 years ago.

Hang with me on this one. First, 20 years ago, there were no "play-in" games. It was 64 teams, period. The NCAA selection committee chose the field of 64, and that was it. Now, it's up to 68 or 69. According to Wikipedia, there are 346 member Division I schools.

Twenty years ago, regional games were frequently played, although not always, in college arenas. Not so much anymore. Most of the regional matchups are in large, downtown arenas that house professional teams. I remember days when regionals were played at college arenas like The Pit at the University of New Mexico; or Thomson-Boling Arena at the University of Tennessee. It's been quite some time since I've seen either of those venues on the tournament lineup.

And, how about the Final Four itself? The 1985 Final Four, for instance, was at Rupp Arena at the University of Kentucky. The 1983 Final Four, which had one of the best game endings I've ever seen (who can forget the last-second NC State dunk by Lorenzo Charles to win the game) was at University of New Mexico's University Arena (aka "The Pit").

Several years ago, after the ticket debacle at the 1996 Final Four in East Rutherford, NJ, the NCAA made a decision that traditional arenas could no longer accomodate the Final Four. The 1996 Final Four was at the Meadowlands Arena (gone through several names over the years) which sat about 18,000.

After all the other tickets were handed out, there were only about 1,100 tickets for general public sale.

Since 1997, Final Fours have been played exclusively in domed stadiums. Back then, the "minimum" seating capacity to host a Final Four was 33,000. Which essentially rules out any traditional basketball arena.

Now, the NCAA requires a minimum seating capacity of 70,000. That pretty much rules the Metrodome out for future Final Fours. Click "The NCAA Tournament - Opinon" for a link to a Flickr photo I found for last year's Final Four, and what the setup looks like.

It seems to me the whole NCAA tournament is becoming more about TV dollars and selling tickets. Hence, the bigger arenas, more teams, etc. Take a look at this year: now we have games on four TV networks. That's great for people who want to see every game; but the entire tournament used to be on just one TV station: CBS.

The NCAA tournament is falling victim to neutralization all around. If you watch the games this year, all the floors in all the cities look exactly the same. The NCAA must have spent a fortune having a hardwood floor made for every city that hosted a game. The NCAA is plastering it's black and blue color scheme everywhere, from the floors to the banners to almost anything and everything that says "NCAA Tournament". About 20 years ago, all the NCAA would do was put a few decals over the home court logos. That was it.

And, advertising. If you go to an NCAA tournament game, you'll notice that blue tarps are placed over arena and stadium advertising. They probably don't do that as much anymore, since the advent of the LED digital "ribbon board" that can change advertisements. But, some of the older arenas that have permanent ads, are still covered up. One good thing is that it covers up beer ads - and alcohol is not sold at NCAA tournament events. But, this one really got to me, I had read about this in the Detroit Free-Press back in 2009. The 2009 Final Four was held at the new home of the Detroit Lions, which seats somewhere in the neigborhood of 66,000.

As with many new stadiums, the seats all have cupholders on them. At Ford Field, Aquafina "sponsored" all the cupholders. During the preparation for the Final Four, crews went to EVERY seat and put a blue sticker over the Aquafina logos. I guess Aquafina isn't an "official" NCAA sponsor. But, are TV cameras really going to pick up a little sticker? Seemed a little odd and a colossal waste of time to me.

People love college basketball because you don't have collective-bargaining agreements, or player contracts, owner lockouts or endorsement deals. College basketball wasn't supposed to be about the money. But, the way the NCAA is running the tournament these days, money seems to be the number one priority. I miss the old days.