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Topic: A College hoops mailbag snipett from Eamon Brennan - The Athletic

Topic: A College hoops mailbag snipett from Eamon Brennan - The Athletic

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OU_Country
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Member Since: 12/6/2005
Location: On the road between Athens and Madison County
Post Count: 8,321

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A College hoops mailbag snipett from Eamon Brennan - The Athletic

Posted: 5/19/2021 12:21:42 PM

First, if you're not reading The Athletic, I highly recommend it. I'm sharing this simply because for me, this summarizes much of what we as a collective board ARE, at least those who are more hoops leaning than football such as myself.

Stealing Eaman's thought: "Now I just think college basketball is kind of perfect."

I've always thought this. It doesn't need changed drastically. It sure as hell doesn't need to resemble the NBA, because it's not the NBA. It's great just the way it is.

The reader question, and his thought:

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What changes would you make to college hoops to generate more fan interest in the regular season? Is it reducing the constant focus on bracketology, increased gambling presence, shifting some major nonconference games into January/February, or something else? Many sports fans ignore the games until the tournament, which has to be concerning to the powers that be. � Dan K.
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This is a well-meaning question. I get it. You like college basketball, you want it to succeed, you occasionally worry for its future. You see the difference in attention paid to games in the tournament versus the regular season and you think that seems bad. You wonder if the sport isn�t leaving money, or at least engagement, on the table. You notice that college basketball is going up against college football until January and the NFL until February and the NBA (a subset of whose fans seem to really hate college basketball!) pretty much always. You wonder why maybe some of your more casual sports fan friends don�t seem that into it.

Thing is, these are not new questions. They�ve been being asked for at least 20 years, when the best NBA prospects started skipping school entirely, and they probably originate even earlier than that. Concerns about where college basketball stands in the grand scheme of things are nothing new.

I used to worry about this stuff too. I used to wonder whether college basketball needed to uproot its season, start in January, and plunge itself deeper into the spring. I used to think the sport needed to governmentally centralize, the better to coordinate early season events and tournaments and structure itself more seamlessly. I used to think college basketball needed to throw everything against the wall to make itself more appealing to people who weren�t me. I used to think games on aircraft carriers were a really good idea.

Now I just think college basketball is kind of perfect.

This is not to say it didn�t have problems. A decade ago, there really weren�t enough marquee games at the start of the season. (The Champions Classic et al. has helped with that.) Before the past five years, the style of play trends prevailed toward the negative, the slow-paced, the low-scoring, and worst of all the foul-constant � college basketball could be a brutal game to play, and thus a brutal game to watch. (Freedom of movement and other rules tweaks have greatly changed direction of travel.) The one-and-done moral panic has long since subsided. The schedule is pretty good these days; we don�t need more games, or fewer; the balance between every game mattering and having lots of games to watch is just about ideal; bracketology (and, yes, Bubble Watch) help readers understand why the regular season matters more, not less. The diversity of styles and tactical systems at the college level makes it fascinating (and, for all its warts, less homogeneous than the NBA at present), if you�re inclined to care. There is probably some TV executive somewhere who will disagree, who thinks the game needs 1.5x more Marvel movie tie-in graphics packages, or whatever, but generally speaking, �college basketball as form of entertainment� feels like it is in a pretty good place.

Even if it wasn�t, your best bet is to not worry about it. There is an instinct among some college basketball fans (and some college basketball writers) to defend the sport at every turn. It doesn�t need it. College hoops has been around for like 150 years. People love the tournament in droves, sure, but people also love their alma maters. They love going to games. They love walking in to a warm gym in the middle of a blood-curdlingly cold Midwestern night. They love whatever silly chant they do at the second TV timeout of the second half. They love student sections. They love to argue about the 68th-best team in the country. They love to have a Big West game to gamble on at midnight ET on a Thursday. They love to see a walk-on bury a pointless last-minute 3. The sport is not demographics numbers on a spreadsheet, audience share or ad impressions. The sport is joy. Caring about how many other people in how many other demographics watch it relative to their many other entertainment options is not only not worth thinking about but might actively harm your own enjoyment of what you love. Screw it.

I cherish the college basketball regular season, but I also understand that a lot of people don�t. It�s cool either way. There are plenty of us to go around. I wouldn�t change a thing.

OakStreet
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Member Since: 3/28/2012
Location: Bloomington, IN
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RE: A College hoops mailbag snipett from Eamon Brennan - The Athletic

Posted: 5/19/2021 4:05:10 PM

Thanks for sharing this. I enjoyed the read. I remember Eamonn from his days at the Indiana Daily Student covering IU basketball.

OU_Country
General User

Member Since: 12/6/2005
Location: On the road between Athens and Madison County
Post Count: 8,321

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RE: A College hoops mailbag snipett from Eamon Brennan - The Athletic

Posted: 5/20/2021 11:32:05 AM

OakStreet wrote:

Thanks for sharing this. I enjoyed the read. I remember Eamonn from his days at the Indiana Daily Student covering IU basketball.

No problem. I'm usually reluctant to share something out of a subscriber based thing, but it just hit home for me, and I figured it would here as well.

FearLeon
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Member Since: 3/12/2005
Post Count: 4,159

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RE: A College hoops mailbag snipett from Eamon Brennan - The Athletic

Posted: 5/31/2021 9:55:53 AM

I'm just seeing this. Good stuff...I subscribe to Athletic. Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to last much longer. It doesn't appear to be sustainable with current business model.

#BleedGreen #TrentIsGOAT

OU_Country
General User

Member Since: 12/6/2005
Location: On the road between Athens and Madison County
Post Count: 8,321

Status: Offline

RE: A College hoops mailbag snipett from Eamon Brennan - The Athletic

Posted: 6/1/2021 11:35:57 AM

FearLeon wrote:

I'm just seeing this. Good stuff...I subscribe to Athletic. Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to last much longer. It doesn't appear to be sustainable with current business model.

Why do you say that?

brucecuth
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Member Since: 12/21/2004
Post Count: 1,795

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RE: A College hoops mailbag snipett from Eamon Brennan - The Athletic

Posted: 6/1/2021 4:50:02 PM

FearLeon wrote:

I'm just seeing this. Good stuff...I subscribe to Athletic. Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to last much longer. It doesn't appear to be sustainable with current business model.

It was reported a week ago that the New York Times was kicking the tires on The Athletic as a possible acquisition.

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