“It’s Butler, with two seconds, he’s gotta put it up, HE WINS IT, HE WINS IT WITH THE JUMPER, a San Diego State miracle,” Jim Nantz, enthusiastic as ever, yells as San Diego State University defeats Florida Atlantic University, making them the first team out of the Mountain West Conference to reach the National Collegiate Athletic Association Men’s Division I basketball tournament championship, a matchup nobody thought they would ever see in a tournament of March Madness 2023.
FAU only made it into the tournament one other time, getting eliminated by the University of Alabama in 2002. Then, the team later made it back to the tournament and to the final four — an incredible accomplishment. This game-winning shot and matchup is one of the things that make college basketball so special; two underdogs in a battle that will ultimately end with one team storming the court and the other falling to their knees in tears. The passion and unpredictable nature of college basketball is what people watch it for, and what the National Basketball Association has missed for some time now.
The NBA has not created as much appeal for the game of basketball as it should, and fans and the organization have recently come to realize this fact. In an attempt to change and shake up the season to make it more interesting, the NBA has decided to create the league’s first in-season tournament. The tournament sends fans a curveball as an overly-confusing format and unsatisfactory rewards. This tournament seems like a cry for help, with the NBA demonstrating a sense of scrambling. Over the past few seasons, the NBA has presented a downward spiral regarding decreased viewership, being down by about half from the Michael Jordan era. However, to add insult to injury, the viewership during primetime games has decreased by nearly half from only a decade ago, going from 112.9 million during the 2012-2013 season to just 63.8 million this past season. The numbers from as early as the 2017-2018 season show less of a major fall compared to this past season, with viewership standing at around 98.6 million in these years.
One might ask, ‘What are some of the reasons for the loss of viewership and decline for the NBA?’ One major problem could be from what teams like to call “load management” when teams rest their stars all at once, refrain from playing them in back-to-back series, have them sidelined for road games or do not pay them toward the end of the season to tank in hopes of getting a better draft pick.This destroys the competition and causes fans to leave games feeling disappointed. Players receive a lot of criticism and, sometimes, they are blamed for dealing with “calf soreness” or other skeptical “injuries” they could be dealing with, but other times it is the team management’s fault. It has gotten so bad that the average NBA player misses 14.4 games a season, about 17% of the season — the highest it has ever been in league history. The problem even had to be dealt with this off-season with the commissioner of the league, Adam Silver having to create a policy to restrict teams from doing this. Players this season do not seem to care, however, with multiple stars missing opening week games despite the new policy. A lot of this stems from a lack of passion; teams and players make so much money now that they don’t care as much about winning, as their salaries are at an all-time high with the average NBA player’s salary being at over $10 million a year, and stars’ salaries starting to trend toward the $40-50 million per year range.
College basketball is superior; every year it could be anybody’s chance to win it all. Once March Madness starts, all bets are off with crazy upsets happening every year. All the passion in the world is there with kids giving it all to win no matter the cost with this being their dreams as a child. The game of basketball is also played at a significantly higher level: in the NBA, players play hard, but not compared to college basketball. Coaches in the NBA have schemes set up for players with their offense and defense being more free-flowing and letting the star players take control of the game with lots of isolation and forced shots. On the other hand, college basketball is much more critical and precise with teams having unique and intricate game plans specific to the teams they are playing, with much more research and thought put in toward how to beat their opponent. Overall, the ball movement and shot selection is much better and shows how the true game of basketball is meant to be played.
Rivalries are another factor that the NBA lacks. Yes, there are iconic rivalries in the NBA, but not to the level and extent that there is in college basketball. The University of North Carolina against Duke University alone could be argued as more legendary with more history to it than basically every major NBA rivalry.
The level of skill is also usually fair: college basketball games are much more competitive and close in score compared to the NBA, where blowouts happen often. At the college level, however, anything can happen in any game; no team can ever be counted out.
The NBA does have some of the most iconic moments and sports history and some of the most athletic and skillful athletes to ever touch the earth. However, at the end of the day, the game of basketball from an entertainment standpoint will always go to college basketball.
