College Sports (Basketball)
Are you asking for a friend from Indiana?
It was 15 years too late to benefit us.
Then again, with further job security, we may have stayed content with mediocrity.
Then again, with further job security, we may have stayed content with mediocrity.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Why March Madness expansion is really happening: NCAA unnecessarily folded to a bluff from power conferences
March Madness is going to expand because of soft threats and endless greed from the power conferences, Matt Norlander argues
www.cbssports.com
Very smart article, expressing in frank terms the awful truth of all of this: none of this really suits anyone's interests, there aren't really any winners, no one actually makes any money off of this, it's just careless autopilot reacting to fake problems and totally abdicating any responsibility of stewardship of the sport.
For the record I am going to send an email to Josh Whitman asking him to put a stop to this, and I would encourage others to do the same. If we are going to have the sports we love in the future, the fans need to advocate for themselves and have their voices heard, there is far, far too much cynicism about what is "inevitable".
This is the kind of thing that allows Duke to spend more on NIL. Illinois needs to do a better job in getting its players in national ad campaigns. Illinois has advertising and marketing managers and executives up and down the consumer products industries. Surely we can find find a way to get our players some face time in advertising.
Mirk, the twins, Andrej, even Jake's hair have something to offer brands.
"Duke's agreement with Amazon allows the program to generate real NIL opportunities for its players."
I may be reading too much into that, but it sounds like they're trying to make payroll, or give players upside.
The Sprouting Divot
Invisible and Bulletproof
- Miracle Mile
Of course it's !!!!ing Duke.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
So, any game (even at a neutral site) where Duke is the "home" team belongs to the ACC via the grant of rights, and therefore ESPN via the ACC's media deal. So what gives?
Meanwhile, at Wake Forest, Boston College et al
The thing I dislike the most about the expanded field is what it does to small schools. I think the auto-bids should be exempt from play-in games. Your reward is a more winnable game, but even worse odds of making a memorable run.
I say...Let the teams who didn't win squat fight over the scraps. (not that anyone cares...)
I don't really have a problem with more games... I like basketball, especially when the stakes are win or go home.
I say...Let the teams who didn't win squat fight over the scraps. (not that anyone cares...)
I don't really have a problem with more games... I like basketball, especially when the stakes are win or go home.
Illinois is doing this already. We just need to upset the apple cart for long enough to have brand power like Duke, UConn, Michigan.
I think the NBA playoff expansion helped with some of the tanking. It kept teams 9/10 trying to win. Even with the new proposal, without the expanded playoffs it is better to finish 12th or 13th than 10th (assuming #9 still had a shot at #8).