College Basketball: The Final Bore?

In San Antonio's Alamodome this weekend, four of the nation's top men's basketball programs--Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA and Memphis--compete for the NCAA championship. For the first time ever, all four teams are number one seeds.

So why aren't people more excited? TV ratings for the tournament are the lowest they've ever been, mainly because most of the games have been blowouts. No Cinderellas either, though Davidson College came close before losing to Kansas in the regional final.

(On a side note, we find it interesting that on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, a team from Memphis is playing for the championship. Discuss among yourselves how relevant this really is.)

But there have been more fundamental problems affecting the popularity of college basketball. One of them is the National Basketball Association's rule allowing players as young as 19 to enter the league's draft, resulting in so-called student-athletes spending a year or two in school before deciding to turn pro. How can you develop any sort of continuity if you treat the team you're on as if you're in community college?

Another is the schedule, in which conferences have post-season tournaments to help determine who gets into the NCAAs. The regular season is rendered meaningless, leading folks to check out until March.

We're not ignoring the women, who are having their own NCAA championship in Tampa, Florida this weekend. They have their own problems.

Two of the four teams competing--Tennessee and Conneticut--have won most of the national titles for the last decade or so. (The other two, in case you're wondering, are Stanford and Louisiana State) If you're one of the top players such as Candace Parker and Maya Moore, wouldn't you want to be on a consistent winner, too? That's why coaches like Geno Auriemma and Pat Summitt have the pick of the crop, and everyone else gets the scraps.

And because the distribution of talent is so lopsided, games are seldom competitive.

People complain that the women's tournament doesn't get as much attention as the men's tournament does. They're correct. So how come the women's championship final is played in an arena instead of a domed stadium, shown on cable instead of broadcast TV, and the results are too late to make it into that week's issue of Sports Illustrated?

Amidst all the carping we've done, we can just sit back in front of the big screen and watch the games unfold. Who knows? We could be watching the greatest games in the history of the human race. Or not.

One more thing: UCLA will win the men's title, while Tennessee takes home another women's trophy.