Has NIL and the portal already ruined March Madness?

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SeaBee_Gopher

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14 out of 16 SEC teams make it and 16 of the 32 teams to make it out of the first round are from the B1G and SEC, eight each? It's also not surprising there were fewer upsets since good players are now just transferring from the lower leagues to get a bag of money from the P2. They should rename March Madness to the B1G/SEC Basketball Challenge...with traditional powers like Duke, Gonzaga and UConn allowed to participate...for now. It's very similar to the emerging B1G/SEC CFP Challenge, not forgetting, of course, Notre Dame. Unlike Notre Dame, those three basketball schools should be VERY afraid for their futures!

My guess is viewership goes down. It's not March Madness with very little hope of multiple big upsets. I'm not as interested as I was in the past. The just eliminated large swaths of the country from any interest in the tournament. What was the viewership like for the SEC/ACC Basketball Challenge earlier this year? I'm just asking because I had not interest in watching.
 

There IS something to this.

Transferred from the tournament thread...

 
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Bad Gopher said:
There IS something to this.
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Yes there is but the biggest issue for me is that it appears the play has declined. I’m not too worried about not enough upsets yet. We have years that are close to chalk. If this becomes a pattern, we have problems.
 





Holy Man said:
Yes there is but the biggest issue for me is that it appears the play has declined. I’m not too worried about not enough upsets yet. We have years that are close to chalk. If this becomes a pattern, we have problems.
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Bennett Stirtz for Drake and JT Toppin for Texas Tech are two indiviual performers that will be fun to watch in the upcoming matchup. VERY different players but standouts!
I haven't watched enough games...but, how many fun to watch players are there? It doesn't seem like there are as many individual exceptional players as there used to be?
 

60's Guy said:
Bennett Stirtz for Drake and JT Toppin for Texas Tech are two indiviual performers that will be fun to watch in the upcoming matchup. VERY different players but standouts!
I haven't watched enough games...but, how many fun to watch players are there? It doesn't seem like there are as many individual exceptional players as there used to be?
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Agreed. I think the cash flowing around is allowing the rich to stockpile players that might have really stood out at smaller programs. Not long ago, those players would have been featured on mid majors. There has been some competitive ball though.
 



Holy Man said:
Yes there is but the biggest issue for me is that it appears the play has declined. I’m not too worried about not enough upsets yet. We have years that are close to chalk. If this becomes a pattern, we have problems.
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Play has declined because there is too much emphasis on the three-point shot.
 

Holy Man said:
Yes there is but the biggest issue for me is that it appears the play has declined. I’m not too worried about not enough upsets yet. We have years that are close to chalk. If this becomes a pattern, we have problems.
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I'm with you on this. That's why I remarked about the Illinois-Xavier game last night. Good players playing good. That kind of thing has been unfortunately too rare this year.
 


I agree, one year is not enough time, but logic says this will happen more. Biggest one I can think of if Frankie Fidler. Left omaha after 3 years, doesn't play a ton at MSU but Omaha made it as a 15. They had no shot but put him on the team maybe they do.
 



Divide is growing as top mid major players move up after the season to power teams.

People think too many SEC teams got in and maybe true, but the replacements likely provide the same results.

HC hires are huge as they are the only constant at the top level. Players will change annually. Coaches have to be elite in transactional era.
 




gopheraddict said:
Play has declined because there is too much emphasis on the three-point shot.
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What you wrote, but I also think this might have something to do with it.

1982 Champs-UNC.
Starting lineup: M-J, Worthy, Sam Perkins, Matt Doherty, and Jimmy Black.
Runner-ups - Georgetown.
Ewing, Sleepy Floyd, Fred Brown, and others.

Or a bit more recently: Florida 2007
Al Horford, Corey Brewer, Joakim Noah, Marreese Speights.

Has there been any team lately that can even come close?
 


Have to try and see the positives now. It is hard for many players to come right out of high school and compete and find playing time in the top conferences. Now there are opportunities for some to still have a chance to dance at the NCAA level as smaller conference winner, but also get playing time and experience knowing their hard work could later results in getting an opportunity at their bigger school which probably wouldn't have had the chance before and for some at this moment be a big payday.
 

I find this line of thinking funny because in football, since we haven’t had a dynasty and same level of dominance that those Bama teams have, the conversation has recently been “the portal has created more parity in CFB as the top programs can’t retain their depth and everyone now can pay players.”

But since we haven’t had first round upsets it’s the opposite line of thinking in CBB. “NIL and the portal have hurt mid majors as the high majors can poach all their talent.”

If there were more upsets than normal, people would be saying the new rules have created parity in CBB and if the Saban dynasty still existed people would be saying NIL has consolidated all their talent in CFB etc. Whatever the situation is, people would be saying it’s all due to the new NIL and transfer portal rules.

Now I do tend to agree that the rules have hurt mid majors and they get the worse end of the deal, even if they do get some guys who drop down a level that otherwise wouldn’t. And basketball and football are very different sports of course.

I just find it funny how the talking points are complete opposites with the two sports.
 

Why are they opening the portal in the middle of the NCAA tournament?
 






tikited said:
What you wrote, but I also think this might have something to do with it.

1982 Champs-UNC.
Starting lineup: M-J, Worthy, Sam Perkins, Matt Doherty, and Jimmy Black.
Runner-ups - Georgetown.
Ewing, Sleepy Floyd, Fred Brown, and others.

Or a bit more recently: Florida 2007
Al Horford, Corey Brewer, Joakim Noah, Marreese Speights.

Has there been any team lately that can even come close?
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Depends on what you’re using as a metric. If nba games or something you could probably say some
Of the Kentucky teams under Cal or the Villanova teams under Wright.
If you’re meaning in the last fine then yeah probably not
 


howeda7 said:
A year or so ago people were saying NIL was an equalizer. It needs time to settle. Eventually some will realize the grass isn't always greener and transferring 4 times in 4 years will decrease.
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Two things can be true. I think we are going to see the top programs in the big conferences lose their dominance, but also see the mid majors struggle even more to compete. It's now easier for big conference teams to grab surprisingly good players from mid majors, but also harder for the blue blood to horde talent on their bench. The non-blue blood major conference teams would be the beneficiary of both of those things.
 

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