It was an exciting basketball tournament, right down to the final game.
If the early rounds didn’t blow a hole in your bracket, there was something wrong with your bracket!
Congratulations to national champions Duke University, and to N. Noble, who had the most accurate entry in our 2010 Econbrowser NCAA Tournament Challenge. Congrats also to J. Graham, who took both second and third place in the contest.
Don’t know if we’ll try this again next year with the 96-team format. You can probably guess that I’m not a fan of the new expanded tournament.
It was kind of fun revisiting those comments on the BCS system. Like you, I’m not a fan of a 96 team format but maybe for different reasons.
From the cheap seats, it looks to me like:
A) A very obvious attempt at generating ad revenue.
B) A somewhat more subtle way to ensure the “big names” get through to the later rounds, thus adding to (A).
With respect to B, a lot of those teams that blew up brackets might have had to play a game before that, thus tiring them out. Thus, the seeding committee would have a better chance of making sure the “brand name” programs are playing more haggard teams.
Which is too bad really, because a lot of the fun of the tournament (at least for me) is trying to figure out which Murray States are going to pull an upset. I don’t think anyone cares much about the current play-in game, and I doubt that anyone will care much about Ohio vs. St. Mary’s which could easily have happened this year in a 96-team field.
Does anybody think that the NCAA views the student-athlete as anything other than a cog in the revenue generating process? I know from experience that participating students (players, band, cheerleaders, etc) can miss 2 weeks of class during the NCAA tournament if they make the Elite 8.
The NCAA tells us we can’t have an 8 team football playoff because the student-athlete will miss too much class. Really? REALLY? Give me a break. Most schools are on winter recess during most of bowl season.
The NCAA economics may be suspect, or may be not. But the guys and gals who played basketball delivered some of the best sports entertainment in a long time – better than the Olympics by a lot. Three cheers to the players.
The best NCAA Tournament in my life!