College Basketball is set to tip off it’s 2023-24 season in less than a month from today. With the realignments looming and transfer portals and NIL deals all over the place, this might actually be the last great college basketball season.
Or am I too late, was last season the last great basketball season? This season is set to be full of off court distractions.
Come late February we will see teams face off for the last time as conference rivals. Early March will be the last time conference tournaments matter before each conference tournament turns into a 2 week money grab.
The transfer portal and NIL deals helped the kids short term, however the long term effects are not certain. This could of been the beginning of the end. Right in front of our very eyes, yet we were blinded by the lights of our school getting a big name transfer.
Collegiate sports have become the minor minor leagues, kids chasing the money as if this were free agency. All the while the loyalty and tradition of the sport was killed in the process.
Cheers to the Last Time
This season will be the last time we see the mighty, mighty Pac-12 as we know it. “The Conference of Champions”; as it has become known over it’s historic history.
Big10 and Big12 will feel like a party on Hollywood boulevard, too many teams to even tell what’s what.
No more home and home splits as the conference’s will struggle to schedule it that way. Oh and how can I forget the travel from southern California to upstate New Jersey. Or the travel from northern Washington to deep into the heart of Texas.
I just do not think a UCLA vs Rutgers game will ever matter to the casual fan. How about mid February, the primetime Saturday night game between USC and Iowa?
Maybe I am just old, maybe in 50 years no one will remember the good ol’ days and it will be a normal thing. However if you ask this old dog, this upcoming basketball season will be the last great college basketball season.
Championship Week Blues
This season when the calendar turns to March, instead of looking ahead excitedly towards the madness of March. There will be a somber feeling of the last time.
Conference tournaments last 4-5 days will be over, they will last 10-12 days now and be littered with endorsement deals.
No longer will the winner matter as the underdogs will have a near impossible feat. It is already improbable for a team near the bottom of the conference to make a run, now add in 3-5 more games and 4-6 more powerhouses.
If you are near the bottom of the conference you will probably sink, drown, and die there. The winner of conference tournament will not matter also because 14-16 schools from the only three conferences left will be making it.
For a number of cinderella stories the clock will strike midnight on April 5th, 2023.
Again, this will be the last great college basketball season. My heart is broken as I write this article. Hey, at least everybody’s getting paid, right!
Rowan Donaghey is a Sports and Betting insider for Stare Down Sports. You can follow him on twitter via @RowanDonaghey
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