The college basketball landscape has seen dramatic changes in the last decade. The rise of mid-majors like Butler, Gonzaga, and Houston, as well as the retirement of legendary coaches like Mike Krzyzewski and Jay Wright have seen some big name programs suffer, and some formerly lesser known programs thrive.
Probably most responsible for the last several years are the changes in the transfer portal and NIL money players are now getting. That entices kids that would have previously jumped to the NBA out of family need to stay in school and get better while cashing NIL checks.
It’s good for the game in the long run, but has turned the landscape on its ear. This year, for the first time since 1979 no top 3 seeds will be playing the final weekend. It is truly March Madness. Yahoo Sports has more:
This is the first time since seeding began in 1979 that none of the No. 1, 2 or 3 seeds advanced to the NCAA men’s tournament’s final weekend.
The quartet of teams who will play for a championship in Houston next weekend includes three making their Final Four debuts. Florida Atlantic hadn’t won an NCAA tournament game before this March. San Diego State had never advanced beyond the Sweet 16 until Friday. Miami didn’t get to the Elite Eight for the first time until last season.
Talk about bracket busters! If anyone says they correctly predicted the Final Four in their work bracket, they are either lying or they are in fact in possession of Biff Tannen’s copy of “Grey’s Sports Almanac” from Back to the Future 2.
THE FINAL FOUR IS SET 🔥
WHO YOU GOT? pic.twitter.com/kxHWvBynnj
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 26, 2023
While many lament the rise of the mid-majors, it is actually good for the game. Everyone loves the underdog, and could this tournament have more dogs? Consider the Florida Atlantic team that had previously NEVER won a tournament game. That is a Hollywood script, you know, back when Hollywood still made good movies. Yahoo Sports continued:
Only UConn isn’t a Final Four first timer, though even the Huskies haven’t been a college hoops heavyweight in recent years. Since Shabazz Napier carried UConn to its fourth national title in 2014, the Huskies have endured three losing seasons and had notched only a single NCAA tournament victory prior to this year.
Nearly 10% of Yahoo Tourney Pick’em players had UConn advancing out of the loaded West region, but there weren’t too many believers in the other Final Four teams. Only 2.7% had Miami emerging from the Midwest. Only 0.8% picked San Diego State in the South and only 0.3% had Florida Atlantic coming out of the East.
The absence of college basketball’s top seeds and big brands is likely to be a TV ratings disaster, but viewers with Duke or Kentucky fatigue may enjoy the eccentricity of this year’s Final Four.
So, you have a big time program in UConn that had fallen on hard times, A San Diego State team from a historically soft conference, a Miami team that is historically a football school, and a FAU team that doesn’t even know it shouldn’t be there. Talk about compelling drama!
As a Kentucky fan, I can say first hand that none of us expected to be there, so there is definitely no Kentucky fatigue for viewers. Programs like Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina and Michigan State have dominated for years, and they will eventually be back (I hope), but for now let’s soak in what is great about college basketball and pick an underdog for this weekend.
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