Yes, interest in college basketball has been falling every year for some time now. This can be easily seen by the very low attendance at so many college games as seen on TV in recent years. Yes, interest in the bluebloods isn’t suffering, but for maybe 310 of the 350 D1 schools attendance is very sad anymore.
The problem is due to the post-season being composed of the Conference tournament, followed by an NCAA tournament limited to only 68 schools. Most people today are too-young to remember that for most leagues, the Conference tournaments did not exist years ago. Then an AD somewhere came up with the idea of having a post-season tournament for the Conference for the sole purpose as another revenue source. The key was then to somehow generate interest in a tournament after everyone has already gone through a 24-plus game regular season. That is where they came up with the idea of tying the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament to the winner of the Conference tournament.
So now you have a regular season where you play 30 games and the sole purpose of all of the league games is solely for seeding in the Conference tournament. That is a big yawner. For many conferences, if you are the best team in the league during the regular season, you still have to go undefeated in your Conference tournament to get into the NCAA tournament. If your team isn’t the best team during the season, playing for a number 3 seed, or a number 5 seed, etc. is of little interest to the fans. I have not seen a huge turnout at any late season game where the number 4 seed in the Conference tournament is at stake. And no one considers the best team during the regular season as the league champion anymore. The team who gets hot over a four day period is crowned the real champion, even though they may very well have had a mediocre regular season. Such a scenario generates zero interest during the regular season. So in today’s world, with little interest in winning any crown during the regular season, those who do come to the games are there simply to watch a game, but nothing to really root for. Thus no energy or excitement in the arenas. It is an epidemic at most schools.
The solution is to have the NCAA tournament for all D1 schools. That would return the regular season back to its rightful importance. All schools are then playing to win their Conference championship instead of just playing for seeding position. And for the mathematically-challenged fans who will scream that such a tournament would take a whole extra month to play, in reality it would only take one more week. The first week would get down the field down to the group of 64, and you would still have the Sunday Seeding Show for the 64 remaining teams. The huge difference would be that all 64 teams won their way into the round of 64. No more teams losing out in their Conference tournaments but still getting into the NCAA due to the politics of a selection committee. All 64 teams won their way in – a novel idea. The high schools have everyone in their statewide post-season tournament. They have it right.
I don’t see how letting all teams play in the tournament makes the regular season more important. Just let the upper half of the conference based on season record in conference play in the tourney, then the regular season really counts for something.
The reason that having everyone in the Big Dance benefits the regular season is that the fans do not lose interest in the regular season, as they do now, due to the idea that their team is not expected to make it into the NCAA tournament so therefore there is no reason to follow their school this year, or most other years. But if their school is automatically in the post-season tournament, then the focus can rightfully return to the regular season and root for your team to win the conference championship, or at least have as good a record as possible heading into the Big Dance.
Watching a game at the Convo on TV the other night, thanks to ESPN3, showed exactly what I’m talking about. A slim crowd, much smaller that you would’ve seen on a weeknight game years ago. Zero enthusiasm in the fans, no rooting for the home team, no energy in the arena. Everyone was there silently watching the game, not any different than if they were attending a performance at Mem Aud.
The reason for the loss of excitement is that we now perceive that the sole purpose of the season is to make the NCAA tournament. Yet for almost all MAC schools, including Ohio, there hasn’t been any reasonable expectation of being that sole team that gets the one and only slot into the tournament. Therefore, no interest in the season. Why care? And you can see that same lack of interest in a multitude of other games that you see on TV that involve teams not ranked in the polls. Very sparsely filled arenas, many at major universities whose teams are not ranked nationally. Even at ranked schools, attendance is way down. Many home games at tosu have seen very small crowds compared to the capacity of their arena.
But if everyone is included in the Big Dance, the interest returns to the regular season, just like it was years ago. Your team is still playing for a true league championship. Even if your team is out of the championship race, you are still rooting to finish with as best a record as possible so that you can get a higher spot in the NCAA tournament. Your team can get better as the season progresses, which is the amateur model of the sport, and possibly do well in the Big Dance.
Just think of Ohio right now. You would be rooting for the Cats to improve as the season goes on, and have a chance to do something in the second season. As opposed to the season is already over attitude that is now seen.
There would be no more of that nonsense that we will hear ad nauseum for the next six weeks – RPI, strength of schedule, bracketology, body of work, quality wins, bad losses, first four in, last four out, wins over Top 50, etc,, all of which are used as excuses to put the politically correct teams in the tournament over the less publicized ones.
Just put everyone in the tournament field, tip it off, and let everyone get their shot at it. The fans everywhere would love it. Interestingly enough, every school having a decent year would only have to win two games to make it into the field of 64. How about that.