Is this year’s March Madness too crazy?

An illustrated collage of a basketball surrounded by players Illustrated/Getty Images

Welcome to the “Upset Era” of college basketball. The men’s Final Four is set and features a familiar team – Connecticut, which has won four national championships since 1999 – and three making their first appearances on the sport’s biggest stage: Miami, Florida Atlantic and San Diego State . No Kansas, no Duke, no Kentucky, no Villanova. The Bluebloods were banished in favor of the scrappy upstarts. (And if you filled out a March Madness bracket this year, it’s safe to say it’s long gone.)

It’s a “Final Four that no one could have seen coming,” reports Sports Illustrated. But maybe we should have seen it coming. After all, there have been “some major changes in collegiate athletics” in recent years – including greatly relaxed rules for moving players between campuses, as well as the sudden increase in “Name, Image and Likeness” (NIL) rules that were formerly ” Amateur “Athletes make money from endorsements while they’re still in college. Miami, in particular, made its first Final Four with NIL deals that attracted Impact players from the states of Kansas and Arkansas.

Even with the changes, the Cinderella slipper definitely suits the new teams. “For the first time since seeding began, the Final Four will not feature a single former McDonald’s All-American,” notes Axios. But it seems like something fundamental has changed in collegiate sports, the Associated Press’s Eddie Pells writes: “Fans could look back to the 2022-23 season as the season when true parity finally sank deep into the bones of America’s favorite basketball tournament has invaded.”

What are the commentators saying?

Some people think March Madness has gone a little too crazy this year. That might not be good for the sport. “It’s a garage sale finale, and it takes a good spirit to enjoy garage sales,” writes Chuck Culpepper for the Washington Post. Basketball fans tend to like surprises in the early rounds of the NCAA tournament — and seeing the traditional forces stand by during finals weekend. This Final Four will test that theory. Will America watch no-name teams compete for the crown, or will they tune out? “Are you as warmhearted as you say, or are you just a grumpy old prig who wants to watch old empires while you eat your fries and seven-bean dip?”

The story goes on

The changes in transfer and NIL rules have clearly had an impact on this Final Four, writes Terry Toohey at The Trentonian. The new rules allow players to switch between universities without taking a year off as they had to do before. The result? Except for Connecticut, none of this year’s finals teams have a rich basketball tradition. “But what these teams have are transfers, and lots of them.” 16 of the 63 players in the four teams – a full 25 percent – are transfers from other schools. Toohey’s advice: “Get used to it.”

The rule changes “help college basketball, not kill it,” argues Mitchell Forde at Athlon Sports. He points out that Miami’s Nijel Pack was brought out of the state of Kansas thanks to a NIL deal funded by Lifewater CEO John Ruiz, a “super booster” from Miami. The deal was heavily criticized at the time – as proof “that only the best-funded, blue-blooded programs could compete under the new rules”. Now? A different perspective might be required. “Changes in how programs attract talent and build their teams are leading to changes in which teams compete for a championship,” writes Forde. “And that’s fun.”

What’s next?

Former NBA player Charles Barkley believes the rule changes will eventually widen the disparity between traditional college basketball forces and the also-rans. “In the next 3-5 years we’re going to have 25 schools that are going to dominate the sport because they can afford players,” he told 60 Minutes in a weekend interview. “And those schools that the players can’t afford or don’t pay will be irrelevant.” If that’s the case, this year’s crazy Final Four could be a one-off rather than a turning point.

Meanwhile, TV execs could be concerned that the smaller names playing college basketball’s final weekend won’t draw TV viewers. The Athletic points to a 2021 interview with CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus who said the usual powers — KU, North Carolina, Duke — are good for ratings. “We’re going to focus on the teams and stories that are in it,” he said at the time. “Would we like to have them [traditional power] teams? Sure we would.” The Athletic concluded: “This year’s Final Four will provide a glimpse into the importance of the Bluebloods.”

In the meantime, college basketball fans should just enjoy this weekend’s unusual matchups, writes Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated. The tournament was “wildly unpredictable” with many new storylines. “This Final Four is fresh and strange,” he writes, adding, “All in all, the tournament was great again.”

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