If you are reading this column on the day it comes out, then the First Four games of the NCAA Tournament have started and the real action begins tomorrow. Four networks will carry all of the action and present it as a love letter to college basketball and the NCAA.
Why? That isn’t how or why most of us are watching.
Look, I live in North Carolina. With apologies to the states of Kentucky and Indiana, there is nowhere on Earth that loves college basketball as much as my friends and neighbors. Yet, it isn’t lost on any of us that they are very much in the minority. I’ve lived here for 16 years and it just hasn’t rubbed off. I don’t get the appeal of inferior basketball…that is until the NCAA Tournament, when I have money on the line.
Games will be carried on CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV. All of them will have studio programming originating from New York. In the past, this made sense. You’re saving money by doing it all from CBS’s studios. Now it’s time for a change. It is time for CBS and Turner Sports to catch up to where the majority of the audience is. Take the studio shows to Vegas.
Is that a cynical point of view? Sure, but I have no problem admitting that when it comes to the NCAA, I am a cynic. The advertisements calling the organization “a spirit squad” and Jim Nantz’s bloviating about this event as if it is a church service aren’t just silly at this point. They are embarrassing.
More money is bet on this event than just about anything else on the American sports calendar. Mobile apps and more states legalizing the practice means that this will likely be a record year for the NCAA Tournament in terms of the handle. That is just what is bet legally too.
Think about all of the people using offshore books or running bracket contests in their offices or with their friends. We have one going here at BSM, which I believe Brian Noe has dominated the last two years.
America likes basketball. We just don’t particularly love college basketball. The ratings show it. Our former colleague Seth Everett once pointed out that the regular season is an afterthought across most of the country. If you don’t believe the anecdotal evidence, look at the numbers.
Mike Krzyzewski is retiring after this season. ESPN made a big deal out of his final season as the coach of Duke, as it should have. His final home game was the network’s most-watched college basketball game in three years and it delivered less than 4 million viewers!
CBS and Turner aren’t paying $770 million per year to carry the NCAA Tournament because the diehard college basketball audience is valuable. This is an event. Gambling has made it one. It is no different than the Kentucky Derby or a major boxing card. Do fans of those sports exist? Sure, but they are dwarfed by the people that are watching because they have something riding on the outcome.
Las Vegas will be electric this weekend. It is electric every year on this weekend with good reason. There are so many games to put money on. Groups of friends will head to sportsbooks and settle in for the day gorging themselves on basketball and free booze. The masses could provide a backdrop to the four networks’ studio shows that rival ESPN’s College GameDay.
We’re at a point in history where the NCAA cannot legitimately stand behind its argument of having a moral objection to sports betting or presentations that highlight the practice. No matter the sport, if it is on TV, there are commecials for mobile sportsbooks all over it. Schools that are members of the NCAA have official gambling partners. This shouldn’t be an uphill battle.
CBS and the Turner networks simply have to pitch this to the NCAA in two ways. First, we’re paying a lot of money to televise these games. We need full control of the presentation. On top of that, let’s cater to the larger swath of the audience and present the NCAA Tournament as a pop culture event, since that is how most Americans engage with it!
Football is my college sports obsession, so the passion some have for college basketball is not totally foreign to me. I get those people are out there, but college football doesn’t have anything like the NCAA Tournament. You may not alienate anyone by catering your presentation to the die hards, but you aren’t really taking full advantage of the event by living and dying with “One Shining Moment” either.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
