Whitlock: NCAA Paves the Way For Dookies White Boys

The experts on CBS and ESPN were not at liberty Sunday night to explain to you why the NCAA Tournament selection committee treated Duke like the No. 1 overall seed rather than Kansas, the nation’s best basketball team.

The explanation is simple: Duke is television ratings gold, and the NCAA is in the process of negotiating a new TV contract for its prized tournament.

In an effort to hoodwink a TV network into again overpaying for the Big Dance, the NCAA is considering expanding the tourney to 96 teams.

So it’s only logical that the selection committee provided the Blue Devils — tournament-chokers for most of the last decade — a relative cakewalk to the Final Four.

Why?

“Duke and (North) Carolina bring big built-in audiences to TV sets,” CBS programmer Mike Aresco told a USA Today reporter last year in explaining CBS’s 2009 tournament ratings bump.

The NCAA needs another bump.

No coach and no team move the needle better than Mike Krzyzewski and the Duke Blue Devils.

They’re the Tiger Woods of hoops, a squeaky-clean fantasy that sports fans love and love to hate.

Short of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, Coach K and his All-American Boys have been the NCAA’s best box-office draw. Duke’s 1992 victory over Michigan is the second-most-watched championship game after Magic-Bird. Duke’s loss to Arkansas in 1994 is fourth.

The Jayhawks produced Dr. Naismith, Wilt Chamberlain and Danny Manning. Kansas owns three NCAA titles. And just about everyone agrees Bill Self is as good a coach as there is.

Kansas fails the squeaky-clean charade. Duke scores higher on the old “eyeball” test. Fewer tattoos and more white guys.

I just made many of you uncomfortable. Sorry. But it’s a fact.

It’s no different from Tiger Woods’ brown skin in a traditionally white-skin sport sending golf ratings (and sponsorship dollars) skyrocketing. Coach K and his band of Boys Next Door are the Great White Hopes of Hoops. Three of Duke’s five starters are white. Their top two scorers are white.

But let’s deal with the reality of why Duke was given a favorable draw. The NCAA is desperate for television ratings. The $6 billion CBS paid over 11 years financed a lot of things the NCAA likes to do — stuff like propping up nonrevenue sports.

Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if the NCAA mandated that Christian Laettner, Grant Hill and Shane Battier referee all of the Blue Devils’ tournament games.

This is the price of television being in total control of the sports world. At contract time, the NCAA Tournament isn’t much different from “American Idol.”

To reach Jason Whitlock, call 816-234-4869 or send e-mail to jwhitlock@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/13/1813273/ncaa-caves-to-tv-pressure-by-going.html

 

Re: Whitlock: NCAA Paves the Way for Duke's White Boys


Uh, thanks for posting the link and all D_B.

 

Re: Whitlock: NCAA Paves the Way For Duke's White Boys

Two black guys?

Kansas' probable two first-round foes: irrelevent and UNLV/Northern Iowa. Duke's: irrelevent and Cal/Louisville. UNLV = 37th in Ken Pomeroy ratings, Northern Iowa = 32nd. Cal = 14th, Louisville = 39th.

Not to mention Duke is No. 1 in the Ken Pom rankings while Kansas is No. 2.

Kansas' No. 2 and No. 3 seeds = Ohio State (4th) and Georgetown (11th) while Duke's = Villanova (15th) and Baylor (12th).

Yep, it's sure paved with gold for Duke.

I guess people could deal in facts, but it doesn't make for as good a column as a temper tantrum hallmarked by lips specked with spittle. The reality is that for as successful a program as Kansas has been, no one gives a fuck about them. But you can't write the truth -- that Kansas is actually North Carolina's training program, and will always always always be playing in the shadow of the true big boys, no matter how many times they say Phog Allen.

But you can't write that in a Kansas newspaper.

 

The Kansas got screwed scenario is based on assuming the Ohio State team which played Minnesota is the real one, not the one that was life and death to beat Michigan and Illinois. In other words, the Last Game I Saw fallacy.
Duke got an easy draw is based on Villanova's sudden decline. That's more than one game, and has merit, but once the committee decided Villanova was a 2, giving them to Duke was no favor. The January Villanova is way better than the March Duke I've seen.
The Man is keeping Jason down AND keeping Kansas down is a classic Whitlock twofer.

 

I'm usually one who really wants to see no more than a graph or two and a link, but for this one, I'm willing to make an exception. Not worth bumping the hit count for this one.

 

Not wanting to agree with Whitlock.

But Duke does get protected best it can every NCAA Tournament. And Duke is also a ratings draw because a lot of people want to watch them lose.

 

I like your cruel, vindictive streak.

 

I hate Duke. I abhor Duke. I would kill Duke in the face with a cheese grater were it possible. But they drew Texas and West Virginia in their last two second-round games and upset favorite VCU in 2007's first round. So where's this protection in every tournament you tout?

 

I just called the phone number you gave us and spoke to Whitlock. He said he would come later and join the sj debate.

 

Whenever Whitlock can't find a real angle he plays the race card. This is news?

 

Sorry, but he's right about this race card.

 

I will agree Kansas has a tougher road. MSU at five is going to be tough for everyone.