Virus, potential player revolt add to the madness
Shaka Smart weathered six years of second-guessing for a chance like this. Scott Drew cleaned up a mess, then spent almost two decades polishing what he built in its place to be ready for right now. And in Houston, those nostalgic for Phi Slama Jama have waited even longer.
If drama is delivered during this NCAA Tournament, somebody from Texas probably will be helping to bring it. But that assumes the biggest story of March Madness happens on a basketball court, and making that assumption might be riskier than letting your entire bracket hinge on the success of a 13-seed.
Sure, the 2021 tournament might wind up being remembered for one of the greatest games been played.
It also might forever be known for a game that never was.
This isn’t a bold prediction so much as it is a concession of how little we know for sure about what’s going to unfold during the next three weeks. Most years, we go into this tradition at least knowing the final 64 teams in the bracket will play 63 games to determine a champion. But for two reasons — reasons that might look different but in fact are quite connected — we can’t take those 63 games for granted anymore.
The first variable is a virus, the second is a movement, and one thing we know for sure is neither have been quelled heading into this weekend’s games in Indianapolis.
Six referees already have been sent home after a positive COVID-19 test and broken protocols. The NCAA announced there have
been eight positive tests inside the “bubble,” while Kansas, Oklahoma and Georgia Tech are among the teams set to open the tournament down at least one key player.
If at any point an outbreak or contact tracing causes a team to be too short-handed to play, that team won’t be replaced, and the game won’t be rescheduled. Instead, the opponent will move on to the next round, and that will be a huge deal.
But not as huge of a deal as another possible scenario.
What if, instead of a pandemic canceling a tournament game, the players do it themselves?
This isn’t a new thought experiment. For years, a boycott of a College Football Playoff contest or any part of the NCAA Tournament has been seen as the ultimate trump card to be used by players in their fight to control their own names, images, and likenesses. As it now stands, college athletes aren’t allowed to profit from their own popularity and face artificial restrictions their fellow students don’t.
The NCAA, while raking in money that would make a casino owner blush, always has maintained that those restrictions are necessary, that the concept of “amateurism” is sacrosanct, and that college athletes represent — but don’t work for — their schools.
But during a year in which many campuses remained mostly closed, the practices and games went on, and the jig was up. The so-called “student-athletes” who make it to the Final Four will end up staying in an Indianapolis hotel for as many as 22 days on what the NCAA insists is not a business trip, even if it obviously is one.
Schools and conferences will earn $900 million from the media-rights deals with CBS and Turner Sports for this tournament. If any player holed up in the downtown Marriott for three weeks accepts $50 to have an Instagram post sponsored, he’ll be deemed ineligible to compete.
It came as no big surprise, then, that in the days leading up to the tournament, several prominent basketball players used social media to spread the hashtag “#Notncaaproperty” and called for changes to rules restricting their compensation.
Players from at least 15 teams in the tournament, including Isaiah Livers of Michigan and Jordan Bohannon of Iowa, joined in.
Among their demands? They want athletes to be allowed to profit off their own names, images and likenesses (NIL) by July 1. They want a meeting with NCAA president Mark Emmert. And they’re hoping for a positive ruling for the plaintiffs in the Alston v. NCAA case pending before the Supreme Court.
“The NCAA OWNS my name image and likeness,” Rutgers standout Geo Baker tweeted. “Someone on music scholarship can profit from an album. Someone on academic scholarship can have a tutor service. For ppl who say “an athletic scholarship is enough.” Anything less than equal rights is never enough. I am #Notncaaproperty”
No matter what happens this month, changes are coming. More than 20 states already are considering legislation related to NIL, and the NCAA was supposed to vote on rules changes in January before pushing the decision back.
But in this tournament, during this pandemic? The players are getting tired of waiting. And although there was no explicit threat about what might happen if they’re ignored, those counting the money undoubtedly recognized the implication.
So as those in Texas and across the country look to the forthcoming madness with understandably giddy anticipation, they should keep in mind that this year the shining moments won’t come only at the buzzer.
In terms of dramatics, it might be just as worthwhile to tune in a couple of hours earlier.
To see who shows up.