Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

I used to love the NCAA basketball tournament. Perhaps it is only for the young.

The NCAA men’s basketball championship game will be played tonight. I won’t watch it as the game won’t start until after I go to bed on the east coast. It starts late in the east as that maximizes the nationwide TV audience and brings more advertising dollars.

What was once a sporting event is now a TV show. I suppose that is okay as it makes more money that way. And the players do deserve the higher pay they recei…uh, oh, no, uh, wait…the players don’t get paid. Never mind.

It is odd that while there is more money in NCAA basketball than before, the players are paid less. Yes, the players used to be paid. Their pay was against the rules, but they were paid here and there by this person and that person who were only “associated with” the basketball programs. Now, there is much tighter scrutiny by the NCAA so the money spigot was closed.

I used to love watching the NCAA basketball tournament. The finals were played on Saturday afternoon after the third-place game was played earlier in the day (on TV). Now the finals are late-night Monday night in prime time on a school night. It is no longer a sporting event for kids who love sports. Now it is a TV show for adults. Oh well.

Still, the guys playing on the teams do it because they want to do it. Some of them simply love playing the game. Some love the attention they receive. Some do it because they may do this professionally and support their close and extended families. I find that admirable. Trouble with that last one is that only 1% are good enough to make a living.

I know when I was young I would have given almost anything to be on a team that was in the NCAA tournament. I would happily have sat the bench and never played just to be there. I was young.

Perhaps that is key to all this. The TV show is for the young.

Troubling question: is it all for the child-like or the child-ish?

Perhaps many of the players are child-like—something I find admirable. Those older people who are spending and making all the money; perhaps child-ish, and I don’t find that admirable.

end-of-rant