If you live on the west coast, the NCAA Tournament tips off just after 9 a.m. Pacific time on Thursday.
For the hosts of Travis & Sliwa on 710 ESPN in Los Angeles, the fact that games of note are being played while their show is on is a bit on the disrespectful side of the bracket makers.
“Disrespectful to all our schools playing that early,” host Allen Sliwa said on Wednesday’s show. “I think most people are gonna be home 4-5’o’clock, something like that. I think getting those later games it’s more of a watch. Whoever’s playing later in the day I’m assuming has got a little bit more.”
Producer Emily Hybl said in the case of her alma mater, the University of Virginia, having to play the second game of the first round and having it air on TruTV was pretty disrespectful to a higher seeded team like the Cavaliers.
“If you’re on TruTV, it’s one thing. If you’re on CBS, a little bit different,” Rodgers said. “If you’re on TNT or TBS, those are one, tied for second and then ninth.”
“And then if you’re down 15, they split screen,” Sliwa joked. “They go Law and Order and they go whatever game is on. It’s just a ticker of the score.”
Rodgers said the way coverage and the precise timing of games play out, on top of games airing on easily accessible channels, it’s a different era than how following March Madness used to be.
“They would go away from your team to go to the close finish of some random game, and you would miss the end of your team and all those things because it was only on one or two channels,” Rodgers said. “Constantly flip-flopping back and forth. Now every game is on the entire time.”
