The Madness Dies Too Fast: Disparity in the NCAA Tournament

Copyright Bob Donnan, USA Today Sports, 2020.

The stories of the 15-seed underdog knocking off the 2-seed favorite in the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament are enough to increase the applications to a small Division 1 college - ask the Saint Peter's Peacocks.

Basketball fans around the world tune in for March Madness each year, all the way from the beginning of conference tournaments to the Final Four. Once people have placed their bets and filled out their sure-to-be-perfect bracket, the Field of 68 dwindles to just one champion in a matter of weeks. 

Copyright NCAA, 2022

The first two rounds usually bring a lot of excitement and intrigue. Which school will upset the Power 6 (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC, Big East) juggernaut? Will that one Sun Belt Conference school get its first tournament win? Where the heck is Fairleigh Dickinson? 

By the Sweet Sixteen, though, the hype has mellowed out - perhaps too quickly. By April, when the last four teams take the floor at the Big Dance, the same old story usually gets told: four Power 6 Conference teams vying for the title, no bother for the other 26 leagues that didn't stand a chance. 

Copyright Robert Deutsch, Reuters, 2018

What's the use of these smaller programs entering the tournament if a modern "Mid-Major" hasn't even reached the championship since UNLV won in 1990? Yes, it's sometimes good for publicity and enrollment, but the UC-Irvine Anteaters will likely never be able to boast the trophy in their arena foyer. Before UNLV's victory, the last non-Power 6 team that had won was UTEP in 1966.

While I do not have an answer for this disparity, maybe it's time for college basketball to consider a move similar to that of college football: having two separate tournaments for Division 1, or re-building the current system completely. 

Copyright NCAA, 2023

March Madness is a beautifully chaotic conglomerate of blowouts, upsets, and nailbiters. Unfortunately, midnight always hits too early for any Mid-Major school to complete its loveable Cinderella story, almost always at the hands of a Power 6 team. It would be a shame for the current system to go away, but perhaps there's a better way to do this so the small programs get their due recognition as well.

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