Is college basketball actually in shambles?

Rob Dauster

Feb 5, 2013, 2:53 PM EDT

11 Comments

It seems like this season, there has been a lot more talk about what is wrong with college basketball and how we can fix the sport to make it more popular and mainstream. That talk went viral on Monday, thanks to these comments from the Austin American-Statesmen:

Count Plonsky and myself among those who earnestly wish the start of the college basketball season would be pushed back until early December to give that sport a more fair shake in exposure as it tries in vain to compete with college football and the NFL for the public’s consciousness. “We have to start sliding the season back until football calms down,” Plonsky said. Added Dodds, concerning the one-and-done superstars, “The sport of basketball is in shambles.”

Sliding the season back won’t work. The NFL season doesn’t end until the beginning of February, and with the BCS playoffs coming, college football might be reaching their tentacles further into the New Year as well. By pushing the season back, March Madness will only be forced to share the spotlight with the start of baseball seasons and the NBA playoffs.

That’s not exactly the best way to promote the game.

The bottom-line is that college basketball is going to be a niche sport. Darren Rovell said in a recent interview with The Big Lead that the top five most popular sports are the NFL, College Football, the NBA, MLB and Nascar. He’s probably correct. Pro sports are always going to be more popular than college sports. Football dominates because there is one game played every week. Fans look forward to it all week, and those games usually happen on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The same thing can be said for Nascar races.

College hoops as the potential to be better and more popular, but the two biggest issue the sport faces right now are out of its control. Realignment is butchering the local rivalries and traditional conference foes we’ve come to know and love. The Big East has been gutted by realignment, and the most historic programs in the best hoops conference in the country bolted. All that has been due to football’s impact on the college sports landscape.

The other problem is the one-and-done rule, which is the result of a rule implemented by the NBA. Having those kids on campus for one year is better than not having them at all, but it creates a problem: with the exception of the occasional Kevin Durant or Carmelo Anthony, freshmen, regardless of how talented they are, are generally not ready to step on campus and dominate. Just look at what’s happening with Kentucky and UCLA this season. They had loaded recruiting classes, and they’re probably not going to win their conference.

They’ll be a dangerous tournament team, but that’s because it took them four months to finally figure out how to play. If those kids spend two years on campus, the early season hoops will be better.

But they won’t be.

Which only drives home the point that college basketball cannot do away with March Madness.

How many sports can dominate the attention of every fan across the country for an entire month? College basketball does that. Every March, all eyes turn to college hoops as fans settle in to cheer for the bracket they filled out and, secondarily, their alma mater. That’s a key right there. March Madness brings in fans that are there to watch more than just their team’s game.

I don’t agree with Dodds that basketball is in shambles.

But I do believe the sport needs to be improved. To do that, the most talented players need to spend a longer period of time on campus, the overall level of play needs to be improved, and the games that occur throughout the month of December need to be more relevant.