Fox Sports’ Analyst Joel Klatt takes aim at the NCAA tournament

[Travelman6]

 

[BlueandOG]

Joel Klatt should flush out his headgear. The NCAA tournament is a huge audience draw BECAUSE of the Cinderella stories.

 

[CTBasketball]

Who?

 

[Palatine]

Yeah, these idiots think the public wants a 12 loss Alabama team in the football playoff because it's Alabama. They don't care about the public they care about enriching their conferences.

 

[phillionaire]

march madness is perfection. The college football playoff is a made for tv event created by and for ESPN

 

[RedStickHusky]

People would rather vote on a winner than settle things on a court or a field. Fundamental ignorance of "sport". Same people that cry "the best team didn't win" when what they mean is "the team I bet on didn't win".

 

[Gurleyman]

I mean, the fairest is the Premier League - everyone plays everyone else home and home and then the champion has the most points. But were it not for things like the champions league, the Europa league and relegation, almost nobody would have anything to play for in the last two months and it’d be super boring.

People remember (sigh) George Mason. Florida beat them and then beat ucla in the final. For the life of me I couldn’t remember who UCLA beat in the final four. It was LSU - so I’m sure LSU fans remember since they don’t get there very often. But they added nothing to the storyline.

People will remember Florida Atlantic but nobody will remember Miami. Hell, Cam yesterday when he lit up the Clippers pointed at their bench and said “you better get him off me” - the guy (Miller) played on that Miami team and I was like “oh yeah”

 

[Hey Adrien!]

View attachment 114661

I bet this guy loved the Players Era. Poophead.

 

[bendm]

Joel klatt takes aim at the NCAA tournament and misses by a mile:

1) march madness is the best tourney in all of sports.
2) how is it the least fair? because the winner of each conference title gets an auto bid? that makes it more fair not less fair.

 

[champs99and04]

I can follow his logic if his point is that the college football playoff shouldn't be modeled after March Madness. I'd actually agree with him there. They are two very different sports with much different levels of variance on a game to game basis. Your average 14-seed might beat the 3-seed one out of ten times in basketball, but that's still probably once more than the college football equivalent of a 14-seed would beat, say, Oregon over the same sample.

But to take aim at the NCAA Tournament like he does shows me that he's just a guy that doesn't get it. Anyone who thinks the NCAA Tournament should be the literal 68 best teams isn't worth taking seriously.

Also, this notion of "fairness" bothers me, because one could easily make the argument, as @Gurleyman just did, that postseason tournaments are by definition unfair and arbitrary no matter how many teams qualify. Last year we watched Ohio State lose to first place Oregon (in addition to Michigan) en route to a third place finish in the Big Ten, only to get another crack at them because of the expanded playoff. How is that fair? The NCAA Tournament may not always crown the best team either, but at least it's honest about what it is.

 

[Ha Who]

This guy is the biggest idiot, but what do you expect from a college football analyst who went to Colorado?

 

[superjohn]

This guy looks old as hell for 43.

 

[Devland]

He's getting talked about. Probably what he was looking for.

 

[uh-no]

clickbait engagement farming.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Normally I wouldn’t even respond to such stupidity from the media but the last few weeks have been diabolical. If there were any doubt that the P2 are trying to absorb all of the resources in ALL sports, look no further. They are literally trying to argue that the ncaa tournament, the most egalitarian system in all of sports, is somehow invalid because “the best team doesn’t always win,” even though it’s almost always a high major/1 seed winning it. They are saying the quiet part out loud. They want a super league.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I bet this guy loved the Players Era. Poophead.

Guy, language, jeez.

 

[RuffRuff]

Soul-less take. We're not going to see many cinderellas make runs anyway. There is one mid major that has anything anymore - Gonzaga.

 

[superjohn]

Soul-less take. We're not going to see many cinderellas make runs anyway. There is one mid major that has anything anymore - Gonzaga.

We never had a lot of final 4 runs from non-P5's but in 2023 we had two non-P5 programs in the final 4, only the second time I've ever seen that in my lifetime. We'll always have the early round upsets and we'll still get the occasional non-P5 going on a deep run.

 

[RuffRuff]

We never had a lot of final 4 runs from non-P5's but in 2023 we had two non-P5 programs in the final 4, only the second time I've ever seen that in my lifetime. We'll always have the early round upsets and we'll still get the occasional non-P5 going on a deep run.

Wild when you think about how much it swung in two years, from SDSU & FAU in the F4 to the most chalk tournament Elite 8 through finals we ever saw. The landscape has shifted fast.

I'm honestly not sure how many early round upsets we'll see from mid majors going forward. They've become a minor league system for the P4. Take a look at last years bracket - mid major making round of 32:

11 Drake over Mizzou
10 New Mexico over Marquette
7 StM over 10 Vandy (higher seed so not really a cinderella)
11 McNeese over Clemson (legit cinderella)
12 CSU over mid major Memphis (doesn't really count)

And that is it. None of these teams got to the S16. That is literally cinderella-less. I'd call that 1 legit cinderella win as the other were either tight seeds, higher seeds or beat another mid major.

 

[superjohn]

Wild when you think about how much it swung in two years, from SDSU & FAU in the F4 to the most chalk tournament Elite 8 through finals we ever saw. The landscape has shifted fast.

I'm honestly not sure how many early round upsets we'll see from mid majors going forward. They've become a minor league system for the P4. Take a look at last years bracket - mid major making round of 32:

11 Drake over Mizzou
10 New Mexico over Marquette
7 StM over 10 Vandy (higher seed so not really a cinderella)
11 McNeese over Clemson (legit cinderella)
12 CSU over mid major Memphis (doesn't really count)

And that is it. None of these teams got to the S16. That is literally cinderella-less. I'd call that 1 legit cinderella win as the other were either tight seeds, higher seeds or beat another mid major.

Last season was just a very chalk year. I expect it to be pretty chalk as well with the top seeds when it's all said and done this tournament too but the minor league system thing cuts both ways. Mid-majors will continue to lose much more top players than ever before because of the transfer portal but mid-majors will also be getting much more 4 star recruits than ever before...

So while you'll have less continuity with mid-major rosters you'll also have more talent on mid-major rosters. One thing that's obviously hurt mid-major programs is that there's just less of them now with the power 5 basketball conferences getting bigger and absorbing more of the mid-major schools.

 

[Gurleyman]

Wild when you think about how much it swung in two years, from SDSU & FAU in the F4 to the most chalk tournament Elite 8 through finals we ever saw. The landscape has shifted fast.

I'm honestly not sure how many early round upsets we'll see from mid majors going forward. They've become a minor league system for the P4. Take a look at last years bracket - mid major making round of 32:

11 Drake over Mizzou
10 New Mexico over Marquette
7 StM over 10 Vandy (higher seed so not really a cinderella)
11 McNeese over Clemson (legit cinderella)
12 CSU over mid major Memphis (doesn't really count)

And that is it. None of these teams got to the S16. That is literally cinderella-less. I'd call that 1 legit cinderella win as the other were either tight seeds, higher seeds or beat another mid major.

Mid-majors will need to learn how to be the minor leagues. They may develop guys and lose them, but they can also pull up strong players from low majors or D2 (Jack Grodahl) or bring down disgruntled P5 players who are salivating for more playing time (and then maybe have to send them back to a different P5 once they prove themselves).

 

[RuffRuff]

Mid-majors will need to learn how to be the minor leagues. They may develop guys and lose them, but they can also pull up strong players from low majors or D2 (Jack Grodahl) or bring down disgruntled P5 players who are salivating for more playing time (and then maybe have to send them back to a different P5 once they prove themselves).

True, but easier said than done and even so, unlikely to compete with high D1.

 

[champs99and04]

So while you'll have less continuity with mid-major rosters you'll also have more talent on mid-major rosters.

While this may be true based on where players' were rated coming out of high school, I don't think it means much. It can be difficult to project what a 16 or 17 year old prospect is going to look like at 20 or 21, and that uncertainty has traditionally benefitted smaller schools with smaller recruiting budgets. All the portal does is allow the players to be re-ranked every offseason, making the market much more efficient and putting the schools' with bigger wallets at a massive advantage. And it's not just mid-majors paying the price, either. Look at Michigan this year - they have transfers from Illinois, OSU, UCLA, UNC, etc. It's gross.

 

[Chin Diesel]

We never had a lot of final 4 runs from non-P5's but in 2023 we had two non-P5 programs in the final 4, only the second time I've ever seen that in my lifetime. We'll always have the early round upsets and we'll still get the occasional non-P5 going on a deep run.

I somewhat remember reading how ratings show fans like Cinderella in first and second weekend, but by the Final Four you need name programs to get the big ratings numbers.

 

[superjohn]

While this may be true based on where players' were rated coming out of high school, I don't think it means much. It can be difficult to project what a 16 or 17 year old prospect is going to look like at 20 or 21, and that uncertainty has traditionally benefitted smaller schools with smaller recruiting budgets. All the portal does is allow the players to be re-ranked every offseason, making the market much more efficient and putting the schools' with bigger wallets at a massive advantage. And it's not just mid-majors paying the price, either. Look at Michigan this year - they have transfers from Illinois, OSU, UCLA, UNC, etc. It's gross.

Yeah, we disagree. That's not all the portal does.