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'What's wrong with college basketball?'

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Dick Whitman, Mar 9, 2012.

  1. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Do TV ratings include on-line viewership numbers?
     
  2. spikechiquet

    spikechiquet Well-Known Member

    Not enough dollar beer nights!
     
  3. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    The idea about pushing the season later (starting in January) makes sense to me.

    Despite a few made-for-TV events like the ACC/Big Ten challenge and nonconference rivalry games, the first month of college BB is what really sinks home attendance. Besides the competition from college and pro FB, Thanksgiving and Christmas break sabotage interest.

    Now, would "April madness" screw up the rest of the sports TV calendar ... particularly putting two CBS cash cows into conflict? Yeah, but that's not the NCAA's problem.
     
  4. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    You waited a year to "zing" me on a comment I had totally forgotten about? You are pathetic.
     
  5. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    God, lighten up. It's a message board, Francis.

    It could have been anyone. I was actually unhappy when I saw that Mr. Crankypants was the one who responded. I was hoping it was someone fun.
     
  6. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    Why go when I can sit at home in my recliner and watch it in HD. Plus, I'm not stuck watching a blowout. My incentive to go to games has gone down since I finally bought an HDTV in 2008.
     
  7. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    BC alone may be responsible for that ACC decline.
     
  8. dixiehack

    dixiehack Well-Known Member

    Put in a tape of USF in the Big East tournament and you'll find 2/3ds of what is wrong. Nobody can shoot. Nobody can score. I'm picking on the Bulls, but the problem is everywhere. If both teams break 70 in regulation, it's now considered an achievement.
     
  9. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    You are not noted for your trash-talking gravitas, so I stand by my original comment, Dr. Passive Aggressive.

    Anyway, attendance is down for the reasons it's down in most other sports -- ticket prices are too high and there's a bazillion entertainment options that weren't around a generation ago.

    Enthusiasm for college basketball, and some other sports that have seen drops in attendance (like, cough, the NFL, cough), is still pretty damn high. Damn near every game is televised, and most that aren't are streamed online. Attendance alone died as a barometer of the popularity of a sport long ago.

    That enthusiasm varies by region, of course. I live in a basketball hotbed, so people are not only ready for it come mid-November, they're excited about it. That's not so much the case in football-oriented areas. I will say the later finish to the college football season has hurt college basketball to a degree.

    I wonder when schools and conferences realize they're killing a bit of their cash cow by limiting their web stream services? I don't know how many fans I've conversed with who said they were staying home to watch the game who would ordinarily buy a ticket.

    As for starting the season later? I doubt that would ever happen. Colleges are so beholden to ESPN and other rights holders that they've essentially conceded the field on making large-scale changes like that. If ESPN says, "you WILL play in (fill in the blank Thanksgiving tournament)", the schools and conferences meekly give in.

    College basketball (and football ... and other sports) are no longer sports so much as programming slots. They will exist in their current form as long as networks need programming to fill time with.
     
  10. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Bubbler's next piece for his paper:

    "Then, Now, Forever: Boxing's Unbreakable Hold on the American Public."
     
  11. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    God you suck at trash-talking. Keep it up though. I'm enjoying it.
     
  12. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Like I said, nothing disappointed me more than seeing Ol' Piss-and-Vinegar as the poster on that thread last year.
     
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