"I hate it." - How expanding the NCAA Tournaments doesn't improve the sport overall - NFL

Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz discuss the real reason the NCAA Tournament is being expanded and the only way to prevent further expansion in the future. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.

Video Transcript

I hate it.

I absolutely, positively hate it.

Now, if you are somebody who financially benefits from the NCAA Tournament, if you are the conferences, if you’re the TV networks, you love this because it, more inventory means more ad dollars, means more money in your pocket.

So that’s great for you, and that’s the only reason that I can point to as to why this change is happening and why this move is being made.

Because it means more money.

Now, that’s something that I have had to just be okay with as a college sports fan.

I think that college sports as, fans as a whole have had to just be okay with acknowledging that a lot of these changes that are being made in college sports, whether it’s, you know, conference realignment or tournament expansion, college football playoff expansion, whatever it is, it’s for one reason and one reason only: it’s money.

Don’t let anybody trick you into thinking that this is better for the sport or this is better for competitive edge.

No, it’s for money.

So as long Like, the sooner that you come to terms with that, the better.

It’s just, I don’t see any reason other than money why this change is being made.

Like, you can tell me, “Oh, well, you know, this, this expands the field so, you know, the, the Auburns and the Miami of Ohio debate that we had this past season, that’ll do away with that and deserving teams will get in.”

No.

All that does is just expand it so the 77th and 78th teams in the country feel screwed rather than the 69th and the 70th teams feeling like they got screwed.

So it doesn’t eliminate that, it just expands that.

Look no further than the college football playoff this past year.

Vanderbilt, Texas, these teams that were right on the bubble felt like they got screwed out of a 12-team college football playoff, whereas the Florida States that were the fifth-best team in the country, they, those were the ones that felt screwed in a four-team playoff.

So it doesn’t eliminate that.

you might say more games is a good thing.

Sure, yeah, I’m, I’m always for more games that matter, I’m always for more games of impact, but do we really need it?

Like, do we really feel like the 70, you know, 2nd and 73rd and 74th teams in the country are really championship contenders?

Of course not, and you’re not gonna convince me of that.

So I don’t see any reason why we are actually doing this in terms of being better for the fans and better for the sport other than money.

Yeah, all of this is, is just dumb.

I hate it.

And look, I’m a massive fan of UNLV basketball.

Grew up going to, watching, and loving UNLV basketball games.

I have a Larry Johnson signed jersey three feet from me right now.

I love UNLV basketball.

I long for the days where I could watch UNLV in the NCAA Tournament.

But let me be clear: mostly I long for the days of UNLV basketball being good, right?

Not just making the tournament because now we’re letting so many teams in that essentially everybody makes the tournament.

I long for the days where my favorite basketball team was actually nationally relevant.

I long for the days where I could watch the team that I grew up watching be great.

I don’t long to sit there and say, “Oh my God, I can’t wait to watch UNLV versus some random National Auto Diesel College nobody’s ever heard of in a game that we really shouldn’t care about ’cause neither of these teams are any good.”

At the end of the day, this is what I beg all of us, don’t watch it.

Like, the honest answer to this is don’t consume it.

Because the only way we’re ever gonna stop this constant expansion that doesn’t need to happen is by not putting eyeballs on it, and that’s the unfortunate truth.

Like, because Caroline is so right when she says this is all about money.

When 97 of the top 100 live TV events last year were sporting events, what does that tell us?

More sports.

Because sports are the one thing that you don’t pause and watch back.

Sports are the one thing you don’t record and watch at your leisure.

You don’t stream it whenever you feel like it.

You’re in it for the moment, which means advertisers can charge more for sports content because you’re glued to your TV and you can’t skip the ads.

That’s why sports work.

That’s why sports still make money in live game format.

So what do you want?

You want more sports windows because then there’s more money to be made.

How do you stop this from happening?

You don’t watch.

The problem is we don’t have the discipline to do that.

“I hate it.” – How expanding the NCAA Tournaments doesn’t improve the sport overall

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