Has NIL and the portal already ruined March Madness?

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die hard gopher said:
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.
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Because mid majors place to shine has always been the NCAA tourney. They have NEVER had any shot in college football. Zero.
It's fine but like all things, money has ruined college sports for the most part. I have paid attention to the NCAA tourney because I always do, but this season, I don't believe I sat down to watch a single NCAA basketball game in full at all. What's the point...
 

4 Conferences. Expected with loss of PAC 12 being absolved.

7 SEC: Auburn (1), Florida (1), Alabama (2), Tennessee (2), Kentucky (3), Ole Miss (6), Arkansas (10)
4 B1G: MSU (2), Maryland (4), Purdue (4), Michigan (5)
4 Big12: Houston (1), Texas Tech (3), Arizona (4), BYU (6)
1 ACC: Duke (1)

7 of the top 8 seeds advanced
9 of top 12
12 of top 16.

Really not a single surprise based on seeding, expectation, and hindsight. Arkansas got a favorable draw with shaky Kansas and a Big East team. Big East underachieved.

Cinderella's: Drake, New Mexico and Colorado State. Competed but in the end wouldn't hold up in a Power Conference.


Women's side look even worse and scores of games are showing it. First round had 6 games decided by less than 10. Two teams scored 25 points in a game and teams won by 50+. With games to be played today, the lowest seed left is South Dakota State as a 10 seed. No one lower than 5 has advanced so far to sweet 16.


If things go chalk today,
Four 1's
Four 2's
Four 3's
Two 4's
Two 5's

With 4 power conferences and UCONN.
 


USAF said:
LOL.
There's more playing time available in basketball, with 5 starters, than in football, where there are 22?

Stop and give that some thought.
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All 5 basketball starters come out for rest. How often do you see QBs sitting on the bench so the backup can give them a break?

I thought his post was great.
 




The times they are a changing...I think the times are good for the Gophers and the Big Ten. T he SEC had 14 teams in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Every conference game was nearly a Quad 1 opportunity.
Play a half decent non conference schedule and finish in the neighborhood of 500 in conference play and you are in. We can do that.
Revenue sharing sharing gives the Big Ten and SEC a greater chance to put teams in the NCAA Tournament squeezing out the smaller funded teams and lower rated conferences...they don't have the quad one opportunities.
Right? Wrong? The Gophers will go to more NCAA Basketball Tournaments than in the past.

Coaching will help for sure but it's the strength of the two conferences making the biggest difference.
 

7 different leagues are represented in the sweet 16
They just all happen to play in 4 leagues now instead of 7


Big ten
SEC
Big 12
American
PAC 12
WCC
ACC
 




Some guy said:
7 different leagues are represented in the sweet 16
They just all happen to play in 4 leagues now instead of 7


Big ten
SEC
Big 12
American
PAC 12
WCC
ACC
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Exactly, and predictable.

The PAC 12/Whatever will return, but with teams gobbled up from the Mountain West-WCC-PAC2, so that will increase odds of another conference beyond the actual current 4 Conferences represented.
 

Dave H said:
There isn't enough playing time for all the players on every football team so players are more apt to move around to find a spot they can play ASAP.
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Dave H said:
It isn't about playing time
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USAF said:
Back to back posts.
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Maybe your reading comprehension is trash, but in the first post he's referring to football players and in the second post, where you conveniently only posted a phrase of @Dave H 's comment, he was CLEARLY referring to basketball players.

You either made a bad attempt at a "gotcha" or just couldn't comprehend what he wrote.
 

GopherTheJugular said:
Maybe your reading comprehension is trash, but in the first post he's referring to football players and in the second post, where you conveniently only posted a phrase of @Dave H 's comment, he was CLEARLY referring to basketball players.

You either made a bad attempt at a "gotcha" or just couldn't comprehend what he wrote.
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He most likely didn't read it. He does that a lot. He will skim, look for some line he can jump off of then make bad faith arguments against things no one is saying. Hell he even does it across boards so he attacks someone in say a Gopher Football thread using things (again not even being argued) in a basketball thread. Then when the mistake is pointed out he either ignores it or gets extra snide.
 

USAF said:
Back to back posts.
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You should either go back and re-read the posts you are (disingenuously) referencing or you should just drop this because you look as bad as the people you usually mock for making bad faith arguments.
 



In the past mid-majors would rise up when they were deep with Jrs and Srs who played together for multiple years in the same system and would be able to overcome the power teams athleticism by playing great team ball on both ends. We probably will never see a mid-major like that ever again.
Going forward mid-majors that make the tourney will have some talented younger players who were overlooked by the P4 schools, but won't have the experience to beat those P4 schools. Then those players will hit the portal and become reserves and stars for those same P4 Schools.
 



howeda7 said:
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This actually turned my stomach when I heard it live. Paying players was sold as justice but has predictably become big bags of money for the few-- the minority of programs and the vast minority of players. It's the worst of the unregulated free market. Put another way, only a minority of programs and players would have voted for this outcome, but this is what we all end up with. Money rots everything.

Whether or not it benefits the Gophers is way down my list of interests. Sports is most interesting when it's competitive. That's most of why MLB has lost its historical popularity. College sports has always had its haves and have nots, and now it's that on steroids. You're already seeing a decline in popularity. They're killing the goose that lays golden eggs.
 

Bad Gopher said:
This actually turned my stomach when I heard it live. Paying players was sold as justice but has predictably become big bags of money for the few-- the minority of programs and the vast minority of players. It's the worst of the unregulated free market. Put another way, only a minority of programs and players would have voted for this outcome, but this is what we all end up with. Money rots everything.

Whether or not it benefits the Gophers is way down my list of interests. Sports is most interesting when it's competitive. That's most of why MLB has lost its historical popularity. College sports has always had its haves and have nots, and now it's that on steroids. You're already seeing a decline in popularity. They're killing the goose that lays golden eggs.
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Disgusting stuff even for a realist.
 





NIL and the portal have certainly changed the game.....to me its not for the better....for the players its certainly for the better as they just get to chase the bag.....

but holy smokes do they need to get some hard lines/salary cap/buyouts/contracts/rules that need to be strictly in place
 

Gophs24 said:
NIL and the portal have certainly changed the game.....to me its not for the better....for the players its certainly for the better as they just get to chase the bag.....

but holy smokes do they need to get some hard lines/salary cap/buyouts/contracts/rules that need to be strictly in place
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Remember when they used to be called student/athletes lol
 

Gophs24 said:
NIL and the portal have certainly changed the game.....to me its not for the better....for the players its certainly for the better as they just get to chase the bag.....

but holy smokes do they need to get some hard lines/salary cap/buyouts/contracts/rules that need to be strictly in place
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This is my thought...make NIL contractual like sign-on bonuses for jobs. Come here and you get $X amount of NIL over a set numbers years, if you leave sooner you owe a percentage back based on where they are in the contract.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
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I think people are overreacting to one season. Just a couple years ago Houston was in the AAC. BYU wasn't in the Big 12 until a few years ago either. They keep making the conferences larger, of course there are going to be more teams from the top conferences making it and advancing.

Colorado St was one crazy shot away of advancing.

There have been only one double digit seed advancing to the S16 in 7 of the last 10 years. It's not that uncommon.
 

Bad Gopher said:
This actually turned my stomach when I heard it live. Paying players was sold as justice but has predictably become big bags of money for the few-- the minority of programs and the vast minority of players. It's the worst of the unregulated free market. Put another way, only a minority of programs and players would have voted for this outcome, but this is what we all end up with. Money rots everything.

Whether or not it benefits the Gophers is way down my list of interests. Sports is most interesting when it's competitive. That's most of why MLB has lost its historical popularity. College sports has always had its haves and have nots, and now it's that on steroids. You're already seeing a decline in popularity. They're killing the goose that lays golden eggs.
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I think that's off base regarding why MBL has lost its historical popularity. It was already way down before the Dodgers started dominating*. Pace of play and the game being reduced to the pursuit of 3 outcomes (Walk, Strikeout or Home Run) are what drove the sports popularity down. It's a slog for the younger generation.

Pace of play is something both the NCAA and the NBA need to be more mindful of as well. It's a painful watch under 2 minutes to see umpteen video reviews to add tenths of seconds to the clock. Frickin' get on with it.



* Off Topic, for all the Dodgers perceived dominance, they have only won the World Series twice since 1988, and once was in a Pandemic Bubble. The Yankees haven't won since 2009, hadn't even won the AL Pennant since then until last year. Basically, I am not even sure that MLB isn't currently "competitive", though I admit it's trending there.
 

GFBfan said:
In the past mid-majors would rise up when they were deep with Jrs and Srs who played together for multiple years in the same system and would be able to overcome the power teams athleticism by playing great team ball on both ends. We probably will never see a mid-major like that ever again.
Going forward mid-majors that make the tourney will have some talented younger players who were overlooked by the P4 schools, but won't have the experience to beat those P4 schools. Then those players will hit the portal and become reserves and stars for those same P4 Schools.
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Exactly. Unfortunately it has become a "dog-eat-dog" mentality with no contracts, only a one year commitment
- the D1 mid-majors will grab up the good looking D2 prospects
- the upper level D1 teams (Big East, Gonzaga, etc.) will grab for the mid-major players
- P4 Schools grab whatever they want (and sometimes they grab from the "traditionally less successful" P4 programs [i.e. Minnesota])
- unless you are a McDonald's High School All-American, you can forget about being recruited by a P4 school
 

GFBfan said:
In the past mid-majors would rise up when they were deep with Jrs and Srs who played together for multiple years in the same system and would be able to overcome the power teams athleticism by playing great team ball on both ends. We probably will never see a mid-major like that ever again.
Going forward mid-majors that make the tourney will have some talented younger players who were overlooked by the P4 schools, but won't have the experience to beat those P4 schools. Then those players will hit the portal and become reserves and stars for those same P4 Schools.
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Interestingly enough… That’s essentially what Drake was this season (except it came from the D2 ranks). All the continuity from D2 championship teams that followed the coach. Hard to do that very often!
 

MaxyJR1 said:
4 Conferences. Expected with loss of PAC 12 being absolved.

7 SEC: Auburn (1), Florida (1), Alabama (2), Tennessee (2), Kentucky (3), Ole Miss (6), Arkansas (10)
4 B1G: MSU (2), Maryland (4), Purdue (4), Michigan (5)
4 Big12: Houston (1), Texas Tech (3), Arizona (4), BYU (6)
1 ACC: Duke (1)

7 of the top 8 seeds advanced
9 of top 12
12 of top 16.

Really not a single surprise based on seeding, expectation, and hindsight. Arkansas got a favorable draw with shaky Kansas and a Big East team. Big East underachieved.

Cinderella's: Drake, New Mexico and Colorado State. Competed but in the end wouldn't hold up in a Power Conference.
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What's more surprising and I think perhaps a bigger impact in the lack of any Mid-Majors is the fact that the Big East & ACC Combined have just 1 team represented (Duke). Additionally, other than St John's going out 2 rounds early according to seed, it's not that surprising.

Those 2 conferences have dominated for 40 years and greatly impacted NCAA's popularity as a whole in huge media markets throughout the Eastern Coast.

1 year is not a trend, but man I have to think it will have a significant impact on ratings/streaming numbers short term.
 

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