The NCAA college basketball tournament is one of the greatest spectacles in sports today. Fans play hooky for work or class just to watch as many games as possible. The tournament produces the excitement of filling out a bracket and competing against friends to see who can correctly predict the winners of the games. March Madness gives fans the agony of having their bracket busted and the thrill of seeing just how far that Cinderella team can go in the tournament. The pure unpredictability is what fans love about the tournament, the fact that in a single game elimination any team can win or lose gives fans a rush. But is this format for crowning the best team in the nation actually the best way of determining a champion?
Basketball is a game of made or missed shots, a favorable bounce or not, and foul or no foul. These factors are enhanced by the pressure of a win or go home scenario. Fans love that the tournament gives the chance of any team winning any game but this doesn’t guarantee that the best team wins. For example with the 2014 champions Connecticut team that were only a seventh seed in the tournament. This team was able to find that recipe of success in the tournament. That recipe is for a team to be playing their best basketball at the right time. Though they were a very good team it is up to debate if a team that was ranked so low were actually the best team. The system of a single elimination allows for upsets, it is unknown if Cinderella teams such as the George Mason team in 2006 or the Florida Gulf Coast team in 2013 could actually beat the majority of their opponents in a best of seven games series. These Cinderella teams were very fun to watch as they made their run in the tournament but the disparity in talent would be too much to overcome in a seven game series where a bad shooting night by an opponent can be made up for later in the series.
The seven game series that the NBA uses in their playoffs almost always crowns the best team. In most NBA seasons fans know going into the playoffs which teams have the best chance for actually winning the title. Through a seven game series the unknown that fans love about the tournament will not play as big of a factor on the outcome of a series. In a seven game series the two teams learn everything about each other. The most intriguing aspect of the series is the adjustments made throughout the series and how the other teams respond. In the NCAA tournament there isn’t enough time to make all the adjustments that are necessary to be successful. The lack of adjustments may have to do with the success in the tournament that some of the smaller schools that play a different style of game than the traditional power house programs. If the NCAA implemented a seven game playoff series similar to the NBA, yes it would take away the excitement of a David verse Goliath, but it would guarantee that the best teams from around the country would face off to determine the true national champion.
