Madness Thinking For March Madness - Tyler Jester

Though this may be a little late since we are nearing the end of April, there are a couple items I believe should be changed about NCAA March Madness, mainly the Men’s Basketball Tournament. The first thing I would like to see change is giving higher home court advantage. There were a couple cases in this past year’s tournament where “supposedly” there was a neutral site for the games, but it was clear that they were home games. For example, Ohio State playing in Dayton, Louisville playing in Lexington, and Kansas playing in Kansas City. All of these second and third round games are supposed to be neutral site, so why do some teams get to play 50 miles from home while some other high seeds have to travel across the country to play their games? I would say it’s a reward for some teams that performed well in the regular season, but why not just call them home games then? There was one case this year, where I believed a 16 seed should have beaten a 1 seed. Kansas should have lost to Western Kentucky, but since the game was in Kansas City, Kansas had the crowd behind them and made a run to win the game. The great thing about the tournament is the neutral site, where neutral fans can get behind the underdog and try and cheer them to victory, but seeing all the red and blue in Kansas City, everyone knew that was not going to happen when Western Kentucky was leading late against Kansas.

The second item I believe should be changed is the arenas that host the Sweet Sixteen through the National Championship. I know the NCAA likes to find the biggest arenas because they know people will pay money to go see the games, but just watching the games, especially in the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight, that the arenas are just too big and it is not a sellout. I believe this takes away from the atmosphere of the game. The arenas that these games are being played in are not setup for a basketball game. Many times these arenas are setup for larger events such as the Super Bowl. The larger arena plus the staged court just seem overdramatic to me and it’s just not what I picture when I think of a March Madness atmosphere. I know this will not change because the NCAA knows they can make more money with the larger arenas, especially for the national championship game, but it would be nice to see these games played in the NBA arenas, that can give the game a little more of a true basketball atmosphere.

All of this said, March Madness is still my favorite time of the sports year, and I cannot wait to watch the games next year.