Basketball as a One Semester Sport

[SoCalDukeFan]

Pac 12 Larry Scott is not a favorite of mine. Pac 12 football teams play way too many Thursday night games which are a big problem for the schools, fans trying to get to the games, and the student-athletes who have their academic routine messed up.

Now Scott wants to consider making basketball a one semester sport. Link (http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/13895102/pac-12-commish-larry-scott-says-consider-containing-college-basketball-season-single-semester)

I guess for schools such as Duke this will push March Madness back into Finals. Coach K does not like the idea. Link (http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/13923267/duke-blue-devils-coach-mike-krzyzewski-says-one-done-culture-not-going-away)

It would be nice to see a commissioner show concern for the student part of student -athlete. I do not expect it from Scott.

SoCal

[Wahoo2000]

Pac 12 Larry Scott is not a favorite of mine. Pac 12 football teams play way too many Thursday night games which are a big problem for the schools, fans trying to get to the games, and the student-athletes who have their academic routine messed up.

Now Scott wants to consider making basketball a one semester sport. Link (http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/13895102/pac-12-commish-larry-scott-says-consider-containing-college-basketball-season-single-semester)

I guess for schools such as Duke this will push March Madness back into Finals. Coach K does not like the idea. Link (http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/13923267/duke-blue-devils-coach-mike-krzyzewski-says-one-done-culture-not-going-away)

It would be nice to see a commissioner show concern for the student part of student -athlete. I do not expect it from Scott.

SoCal

No way this happens. NCAA absolutely OWNS March - it's even a part of their branding! Profitability (which we all grudgingly admit pretty much drives every major decision in college basketball and football) would plummet if the conf and NCAA tournaments had to compete with the masters and NBA playoffs.

May Madness? I think not.

[Edouble]

No way this happens. NCAA absolutely OWNS March - it's even a part of their branding! Profitability (which we all grudgingly admit pretty much drives every major decision in college basketball and football) would plummet if the conf and NCAA tournaments had to compete with the masters and NBA playoffs.

May Madness? I think not.

Agree. Plus MLB is starting to pick up speed at that point in the year.

[SCMatt33]

So I'm not necessarily in favor of this, but I don't think the finals argument is that great. Duke's finals during the first week in May is one of the earliest that I know of, especially if you travel further north. So you'd have a few schools, but I would guess a small minority, who's finals week conflict with the Final Four when only a few teams are left playing (can't forget NIT, CBI, CIT final rounds). Given that many spring sports play straight through April/May, I don't see that being a reason to stop it on its own. Additionally, you could make the argument that academics would be helped by allowing the first semester to be completely void of games and not have a boatload of games the last three weeks leading right into finals for that semester.

Aside from academics, if we forget that it's called "March Madness" for a minute, I do see some interesting points. If it were to happen, I'd love to see the calendar shift exactly one month, with Masters Sunday coinciding with Selection Sunday. Most leagues have gradually moved away from Sunday championship games anyway, and you could still fit one in at 11:30-Noon before starting Masters coverage at 2, then have a ridiculously good lead in for the Selection Show right after. No worries if there's a playoff in golf, everyone can chill for a half hour. While there will be competition between golf and basketball Thursday through Saturday, only those that really love both sports will feel slighted by having to choose, and most of the big games will be prime time away from golf anyway. The last two weeks in April would exactly coincide with the start of the NBA playoffs, but I would think the NCAA tournament could compete with first round NBA playoff games and fare well. Now logistically, this would be impossible to pull off under current tv arrangements because Turner wouldn't have enough on air talent, or air time for all of those games, but with different TV arrangements It would be possible, especially if the NBA didn't want to compete and moved back from a Saturday playoff start (that's whats scheduled this year. not sure if that's always the case), to the following Monday, after first/second rounds. People who are watching April baseball or early round playoff hockey is a different crowd mostly, and the losses that the tournament might see would theoretically be made up for by having two full months of regular season basketball in the spotlight after the Super Bowl.

Overall, I still like it where it is now, and don't actually think it will ever move, but it's an interesting thought experiment, and probably a bit more feasible than most give it credit for.

[Pghdukie]

If it's not broke - don't fix it.

[Olympic Fan]

This proposal is basically for schools and conferences -- and people -- that don't care about college basketball.

There is a national perception that college basketball only starts after the Super Bowl ... and for a large part of the public (and many big city media types) that's true -- I recently heard Mike Wilbon support the one-semester idea because, according to him, college basketball only lasts about six weeks and "the season is too short."

Of course, the people who care about college basketball knows that the season starts in early-to-mid November. Boy, my December would be pretty lame without college basketball. Just a few second-rate bowl games and the NFL (which I don't care about) and the NBA (which nobody cares about until the Christmas Day doubleheader that starts the season).

As it now stands March Madness is the second most important TV sports programming in America (behind only the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl). I very much doubt the NCAA or the CBS family of networks is going to monkey with that. This new idea is just posturing -- like when Jim Delaney proposed re-instituting freshman ineligibility and suggested that the Big Ten might do it unilaterally ... how is that coming, Jim?