The world of college basketball is spinning at hyper speed, and its axis is the almighty dollar. Forgotten in all the talk of budgets, NIL, revenue sharing, and the house settlement is the sport itself, the reason we all watch, or should be watching, from November to March. The money talk has seemingly swept a conundrum under the rug that was at the forefront of college basketball just a few years ago. One of the biggest problems in the sport was competing with college football for viewership early in the season. The easiest solution would be to schedule more games that casual fans would want to tune in to. We started to see more high-profile games early in the season, which is great for fans. The issue is that these marquee games further the divide between those at the top of the sport and everyone else when the postseason arrives. So, while money saturates the college basketball narratives, the problem of making the regular season more appealing while maintaining some balance, especially in March, is growing, and I’m not sure anyone is trying to fix it.
Those dream matchups early in the year have morphed into new multi-team made-for-TV events like the Player’s Era Festival and the newly proposed Diamond Cup. These events are a great way to get fans excited through brand recognition. However, in this new age, where conferences look like Scrooge McDuck swimming in his money pit while claiming relative poverty because they don’t know where the money will come from to keep things afloat, these events serve a more important purpose for them. These events are another way for the haves of college basketball to make more money. Make no mistake, these events are designed to line the well-insulated coffers of participating teams and conferences.
Made-for-TV Events
The Player’s Era Festival, an NIL-based multi-team event, is entering its third year and is expanding to 24 teams this season. In the three years, the only teams not in a Power 5 conference to participate in the Las Vegas-based event have been San Diego State and UNLV. Another made-for-TV event hoping to begin in 2027-28 was announced earlier this spring. The Diamond Cup is a scheduling agreement between eight of the bluest of the blue bloods, including Kentucky, North Carolina, and Kansas. The participation and prize pool for the Player’s Era Festival is expected to total between $20-$30 million. For the Diamond Cup, teams are expected to bring in just under $10 million per school over the course of the three-year contract.
Another consequence of these events that are designed to increase early-season viewership is the impact they have on the NCAA Tournament. The other benefit to these events is that they further accentuate the scheduling advantage these teams have over everyone else. Teams know that these types of games do nothing but help them and their conferences when it comes to their resumes for postseason play. A loss in no way will have an adverse effect on how they are viewed, which gives them even less of a reason to schedule anyone other than power conference teams in the early part of the season. These events are great for TV, but do nothing but widen the chasm between the upper class and everyone else.
Years ago, trying to capitalize on the popularity of Cinderellas during March Madness, Bracket Busters was born. The event was designed to pit mid-major teams with upset potential against each other in February to give those teams a chance at a key win before March. The mid-major showcase would last 11 years before ending in 2012. A good idea in theory, that these teams deserve a scheduling boost because they have such difficulty getting power schools to play them. The issue became that for as many teams as the event helped, it hurt just as many. The resumes of teams that lost were hurt in a way that their at-large hopes came to an end. Bracket Busters was supposed to be for mid-major schools what these high-profile events are for high-major programs. In order to accomplish the goals of Bracket Busters, the mid-major teams needed to be matched up with high-major programs on the bubble, but that was never going to happen.
The Conundrum
The biggest news of the offseason so far has been that the NCAA Tournament will be expanding to 76 teams for the 2026-27 season. This is where the problem of balance comes into play. When we look at the race to have the biggest checkbook in conjunction with star-studded TV events designed to generate more interest and money (because let’s be honest, if the money wasn’t there, none of it would happen; schools aren’t participating for the betterment of college basketball), in addition to an expanded tournament, things look even bleaker for mid-majors. All of these factors help teams that need it the least pad their resumes with even more quad 1 opportunities and improved metrics, knowing that the safety net of a loss does no damage. Doing so also helps the conferences as a whole, increasing the chances that the 8 new at-large spots are more likely to go to a high-major school.
If you ask 100 people on the street to name their favorite college basketball team, a large majority of the responses are likely to be Duke, Kentucky, UNC, Michigan, Arizona, etc., and those are the people we want to be engaged in November. However, if you ask 100 people what the best part of March Madness is, the most prominent answer is probably the Cinderellas or upsets. Therein lies the problem for the NCAA: getting more people to take notice in November by using the names everyone recognizes, and also keeping the parts of the tournament that people find the most memorable. It’s only a conundrum if people are willing to fix both sides of the issue, and judging by the financials and announcements being talked about this spring, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Sadly, much like the “student athlete”, the term “what’s best for the sport” is being completely ignored, and I don’t think anyone in charge cares.