Yesterday, I mentioned that sometime before the start of the NFL regular season we would be hearing about an 18-game regular season expansion. As if on cue, there is an article in today’s Washington Post saying that – – for the moment – – talks about an 18-game season are on hold. I am starting to worry about turning into a latter-day Cassandra …
The Niners’ DB, Deommodore Lenoir was arrested on a charge of “obstruction of justice”. Even if that charge is dropped, he should be arrested and charged with juvenile delinquency – – with the emphasis on “juvenile”. Here is how the arrest was described at Yahoo!Sports.com:
“According to the police report, officers stopped a group including Lenoir in the area of West Vernon Avenue and South Wilton Place and saw a gun in a parked vehicle. Officers asked for the keys to the car and one person in the group threw them over to Lenoir. Lenoir then tossed the keys to a third person, who attempted to hide them.”
Playing “keep-away” is a time-honored behavior on playgrounds just about everywhere. Participants are usually pre-teens and the individual from whom something is “kept-away” is not a police officer. Deommodore Lenoir just put himself squarely in the running for the honor of being Meathead of the Year – 2025. The Niners just signed Lenoir to a 5-year contract worth up to $92M; they cannot be even slightly happy to learn about this.
Moving on … There are rumblings that the NCAA mavens are considering an expansion for March Madness that would increase the field to 76 teams. If they do this, it is purely a cash-grab from the TV networks because there is no clamor in the fanbase to do this. In fact, the additional “play-in games” that such a field would necessitate will only add more confusion to the bracket pools that made March Madness into what it has become.
There is empirical evidence that the fanbase is not chomping at the bit for more play-in games. The current set of 4 such games draw TV audiences smaller than any of the future games in the tournament. As the field stands now, there are teams involved that have lost 10-12 games; other than alums and parents of students at such schools, no one wants to see more of them on TV.
The NCAA stands to make extra money from extra games. You know who else stands to make more money – – and hence are solidly behind such expansion? College coaches and Athletic Directors who often have lucrative bonus clauses in their contracts if the teams they oversee get a tournament slot. So, when you hear from them about how it will “benefit the game” just remember that they are speaking from a position of enlightened self-interest.
It will never happen, but if the NCAA mavens wanted to tweak March Madness, they should cut out the 4 “play-in games” and go beck to a field of 64 teams. Some folks have observed that the Thursday and Friday first round games dominate the TV landscape and that domination would translate to the “play-in games” without diminution of the Thursday/Friday popularity. That sounds good, but the logic does not hold:
- The 4 current “play-in games” draw comparatively tiny audiences.
- Ergo, adding more low-caliber games to a less popular aspect of the tournament is going to inflate interest?
Coaches – – the ones potentially with bonus clauses in their contracts – – like to point out that the “play-in games” allow for late blooming teams to get a shot at “making a run”. Here is my answer to those coaches:
- Your team is in a conference.
- That conference has a conference tournament the week before the field is selected.
- That was your “play-in game”. Win that conference tournament, and you get an invite.
I presume I have made my position abundantly clear on the matter of expansion of March Madness …
Finally, these words from Hunter S. Thompson:
“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………