A Column of Enchantment: College Hoops Doesn’t Need Major Reforms

Posted by Joseph Nardone on January 15th, 2015

I like progressive things. Between looking for outside-the-box ideas or solutions, to not being stuck in the fictional ideal of tradition, even all the way to Flo the Progressive lady, looking to fix things — even if they aren’t currently broken — is the right way to go about living life. Still, it irks me that people are currently looking to make some major overhauls to college hoops because, well, the college football playoff was a huge success. Honestly, the two sports are completely different beasts. For one, and most importantly, college football is an incredibly more profitable sport. Even when dumb, non-progressive folks were saying that the playoff would ruin the sport, most sane people realized that it would not only increase viewership but also make the schools more loot — which is the end game for all universities. Basically, the college football world added one more game to its bowl system, rebranded it into a playoff, and poof, college football is even more popular.

Ohio State Capped Off a Great College Football Playoff (USA Today Images)

Ohio State Capped Off a Great College Football Playoff (USA Today Images)

Now, because it is easy to call for such things moments after another had such major success, smart people in the college basketball community want some reform. We aren’t talking paying the players reform, because that would be all too altruistic and right, but reducing the number of Division I teams type of reform. The person calling for it is ESPN commentator Jay Bilas, who is as smart, respected and progressive as they come. While I agree with some of his theoretical ideas, selfishly and hypothetically I disagree. Bilas wants fewer Division I teams for various educated reasons (I won’t go into them because his article is behind a paywall and I’m less knocking his idea as I am more supporting my own). So it is not as if he is wrong. He and I just have differing opinions on the matter. I — just as good looking as Bilas, but far less educated, respected and known — think college basketball is fine with the number of teams that are currently playing Division I hoops. I do think, though, that if we really wanted to get a bit more progressive with the sport, make more areas care and make it feel more local despite it being a national sport.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share this story