There are times when voices like Michael Wilbon on Pardon the Interruption are needed to give an obvious sports take in a clear way.
Wednesday was one of those days, as Wilbon and cohost Tony Kornheiser addressed the growing momentum behind NCAA tournament expansion with the delirium and anger it deserved. The hosts ripped the “worthless” NCAA and properly diagnosed the expansion of men’s and women’s March Madness as nothing more than a cash grab.
“You’re leaving this to a body, up there that logo that says ‘NCAA,’ there’s not a more worthless brand in sports. There’s not a more mistrusted brand in all of sports than the logo that says ‘NCAA,'” Wilbon said. “Because the people who rule for that body, they look like clowns much of the time.”
There are many issues over which Wilbon could levy that charge, from NIL enforcement to pay-for-play regulation to rulings on sexual impropriety across college athletics. In this case, Wilbon believes the NCAA cannot even make the right decisions about the only thing in college sports that it actually rules over these days: the basketball championship tournaments.
“They’re going to screw this up,” Wilbon said. “It’s an iconic event, brand, the Final Four, March Madness, the Big Dance, all of that. And they’re not smart enough to leave it alone.”
Saying the quiet part out loud, Kornheiser called out the clear ploy for money, belying the push for expansion.
“There is only one reason for expansion, just one. It is money,” Kornheiser said. “The teams that come in at No. 69 or No. 71 or No. 76, they can’t win this tournament. They cannot win this tournament. They are in there to gin up television revenue and gin up gate revenue. That’s all this is about.”
Kornheiser predicted the NCAA will claim expanding the tournament will lead to more “fairness,” but he argued there will not be wider conference representation as a result. Instead, the rich will get richer while the same groups of teams primarily still win.
“There are 354 D-I teams in basketball, 325 cannot win this,” Kornheiser added. “You try, progressively, to ruin something, and eventually you will.”
Outside of betting sharps or degenerates or the fans of tiny schools, hardly any sports fans believe more NCAA tournament games will improve the product. But they will likely attend the games and the TV partners (including the bosses at ESPN) will pay to air them, so the NCAA is probably going to do it anyway.
Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser can’t stop them, but at least they are fed up enough to skewer the people who could stop it.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.