“If Bonds is using steroids because his head keeps getting bigger, why doesn’t anyone accuse Jay Leno.”-Bill Simmons
I enjoy watching sports, especially the NCAA college basketball tournament. The first couple of days, though, have always been a little annoying.
Why must there be four good games going on at once? That’s the madness, baby, but I argue for an extended madness, man. Just a little bit-slow the hectic first round down so that, say, only two good games are on at once.
I can’t imagine why this hasn’t been done already. Wouldn’t it be an astute move for CBS (or whoever is exploiting the player’s labor value these days) to extend the first round? Ratings-wise, the first round of the tournament may not stand up against the “venerable warhorse” of “60 Minutes”, but the madness ratings-romps the average boring television sitcom. It would be difficult to argue that CBS wouldn’t benefit from an extension of the madness.
Wouldn’t increased exposure of a longer first-round benefit the universities involved too? Few outside of the Stockton-to-Malone axis of assist knew about the remarkably adept institution that is Gonzaga, our brethren in both initials and Jesuit-style predilections. And who can forget how March Madness re-catapulted Stanford to national prominence? The list goes on.
And if, horror of horrors, there is a first-round moment when neither on-going contest is competitive? I think I speak for millions of Americans when I say I’d still rather watch a blowout than anything the networks are running these days, well, maybe CNN’s “Inside Politics.”
