newjerseynewsroom.com

BY DAVE RAGAZZO

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

It’s that time of year again.

With the exception of the holiday season, March Madness is one of the most exciting times for people around the country. The NCAA tournament is rich with tradition and exciting games that often expose many of the country’s best basketball programs.

With all the hype and history of the tournament, the NCAA still faces quite a predicament with attendance steadily dropping for the past four years. Although the official numbers for 2011-12 won’t be released until after the tournament, USA Today projects another drop for this season.

The average attendance at NCAA tournament games has decreased since 2008 and the addition of four teams to last year’s tournament didn’t help the numbers. In 2008, the average attendance for the 35 tournament games played was 21,817. Last year, the average after 36 games was 19,186.

There has not been one standout reason as to why attendance has dropped, but rather a few different reasons. One big thing that has hurt the game is the emergence of “one and done” players. Many of the game’s best players enroll at a school for one year and bolt to the NBA the next.

The only reason these players go to school in the first place is because of a rule that eliminated the jump from high school to the NBA.

College basketball often plays second fiddle to college football and the Bowl Championship Series because it is the number one revenue generator for many of these institutions. Many conferences are now realigning because of the BCS which has not only eliminated many storied conference rivalries, but has put basketball on the back burner.

The stakes are not as high in a regular season basketball game because there are so many chances for a team to redeem an early season loss. This has many doubting the appeal of the game.

“The regular season in college basketball is exceedingly irrelevant," Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby has said. Bowlsby is a former chairman of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball committee.

Bowlsby also went on to point out that every college football game matters which hurts basketball’s appeal to the fans.

"The TV ratings are better, the in-stadium attendance is better, and the postseason is valuable," Bowlsby said of football. "The only one of those three that's present in college basketball is the last. The tournament is the Holy Grail, and everything else is just prelude."

So what changes could possibly be in the work for NCAA basketball? Nothing definite is on the table, and there is no indication that changes are coming, but that won’t stop people from brewing up some ideas.

C.M. Newton, a former coach, athletics director and NCAA basketball committee chairman, believes the solution could be as easy as starting the season a little later. The later start date would cause no interference with the end of college football, and could give basketball the spotlight for an entire season.

Newton says that he has pitched the idea to SEC league coaches and has seen a wide range of support.

"You'd have to have April Madness instead of March Madness,” Newton says. “What's the big deal?"