There’s nothing better than March Madness. For three weeks, 64 teams are prepared to battle for the championship. Who will get upset?
Filling out the NCAA basketball tournament bracket is always one of my favorite sports-related activities. I enjoy considering the matchups, which teams have the best players, which players are injured, where the games are held and which conference is the strongest. These factors influence the decision about who will ultimately take home the trophy.
Part of filling out the bracket involves deciding which teams could be considered Cinderella stories. This term refers to a low-seeded team that upsets a high-seeded team. For example, when a 16 seed faces a 1 seed and the 16 seed wins, it results in a massive upset, creating significant drama in the tournament. This unpredictability is what makes March Madness so fantastic: it can happen to any team at any time.
That is, until Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) and the transfer portal changed everything. The top players in mid-major or smaller conferences no longer stay at their schools. Instead, they are recruited by major basketball programs to join elite teams, as NIL provides them with significant financial incentives, and the transfer portal facilitates this movement.
So, the days of a Cinderella story may be behind us. This year, the biggest upset was the 12 seed defeating a 5 seed, which makes the outcome boring and predictable. The upsets make the tournament exciting and attract people to watch all the games. If we already know what will happen, it’s not worth giving up two hours to watch.
This year, all four finalists were a 1 seed. According to the committee that selected the teams for the tournament, this outcome was anticipated. However, in years past, this was not what happened. The final four, being all 1-seeds, have only occurred twice since seeding began in 1979, 2008 and this year. There is no coincidence; NIL and the transfer portal are to blame.
Money talks, and players walk. Unfortunately, this tournament won’t be what it once was unless the rules change. Smaller colleges can’t compete with the sums that big programs can offer these players. And you can’t blame the players for pursuing the money, either. It’s time for a salary cap and a transfer sit-out period, or we will never see a Cinderella again. The tournament’s first two rounds will always end precisely as the numbers show they should, and people will lose interest in watching it.
It is time to get some guardrails on the NIL and transfer portal before they ruin college basketball.