I had no idea just how popular college basketball is. For example, the subreddit has 2.2M subscribers. Although here it has 8.5M, it’s really absurd how popular college basketball is. What’s so special about it compared to NBA? I mean only Americans can really watch it. While in the NBA, it’s more global. I’ve even heard that the revenue generated for unpaid college basketball players is extremely high, some even higher than certain NBA franchises.
Why is college basketball so popular? What makes this so special if those players are not proven to be in the NBA yet? On the other hand, college baseball isn’t really popular compared to MLB itself.
baseball is kind of the outlier, college basketball and football are immensely popular in the USA. that’s just american sports culture, college sports have always been a big deal for a variety of reasons. a big one for football/basketball is historically there hasn’t really been any serious academy system, so the best american players in the world were playing in college before going pro. so it’s where you go to see the players who will be the stars in the next generation.
Alumni and March madness reach a much larger audience
March Madness is the single greatest sports tournament in the world.
March Madness
An end of year, massive 68 team single elimination bracket made up of schools from every conference, every walk of life. Every teams plays like it’s the last game of their lives, because for some of them, it could be. The win or go home situation in NBA Game 7s is part of what makes Game 7 such an iconic phrase, but for those kids in that tournament, every game is Game 7. It makes for some of the most incredible moments in the history of sports.
I’ve always thought that if I were to change the NBA playoff format, I’d want it to be similar. Not a single elimination bracket, but perhaps a triple elimination bracket.