Reminder: College Basketball Got Dumber When They Got Rid Of The 24-Hour Opening Day Marathon, Needs To Stop Challenging Football
We're finally back to my favorite time of the year, might even be my favorite day of the year. The day college basketball returns. I know football dominates this world, but college basketball is my first and last love. There's nothing like it, no matter the screaming about NIL, portal, conference realignment. There's nothing like the atmospheres and the stupidity of this sport.
I've said it for years now. I will always write this blog until it comes back. And to be fair, we have a little bit of it today:
In fact I'm watching Queens and Winthrop tied up at 49 right now as I blog this. It's a great step, but not good enough. It made opening day unique, it gave us something to look forward to, it made college basketball, college basketball. You're telling me you didn't tune in to a Manhattan/Fairfield game at 6am? I call you a liar. The reason the 24 hour marathon went away in 2017 was because of all these other events we get. All the MTE's, all the little tournaments and said it didn't make sense from a logistical standpoint.
And just think about the schedule for today. Good mid-major games, but then we're cramming Villanova/BYU and Florida/Arizona at 7pm and 9:30 in Vegas. Good time to have your marquee games while everyone watches Monday Night Football. I don't care about ESPN fucking all of us with the YouTubeTV blackout, people will find a way to watch Monday Night Football. Play these games earlier or play them tomorrow. More importantly don't have these games this Friday/ Saturday/Sunday:
St. John's/Alabama
Arkansas/Michigan State
Oklahoma/Gonzaga
Indiana/Marquette
Washington/Baylor
Kansas/North Carolina
Why are we playing these games over the weekend? Play this shit on Wednesday night when the best game of the day is North Dakota State/UC Davis. Yeah, you get my point just by saying that. We're finally at the point where college basketball is starting to deliver major games early, first week stuff. Stop playing it against football. Get the casual fans invested, assuming they are allowed to watch it on TV. The whole reason we switched from starting the season on a Friday to a Tuesday and now a Monday was the fact some of those games out on a ship that were awesome immediately got buried. They got buried because the moment that game ended, people talked about football.
Please like my sport. Please watch the good games before March.