On an Around the Horn episode in early January, a topic arose asking the panel about the state of college basketball.
I heard commentators Bomani Jones, Bill Plaschke and Israel Gutierrez arguing that the season was underwhelming and boring due to the lack of a dominant team.
They aren’t alone. Twitters is ablaze with fans criticizing the sport because there isn’t a traditional power dominating the sport like Kentucky did last year and North Carolina had presented years before.
This season, the top ranked team in the nation has changed six times in the Associated Press Top 25 and seven times in the USA Today Coaches Poll, creating instability within the top ranks of college basketball.
But, have they watched college basketball this season?
We’re in the midst of parity taking over a sport normally ruled by the blue blood teams like Kentucky, UNC and UCLA. Sure, Indiana, Duke and Kansas are still located at or near that top spot, but look at the rest of the Top 25.
In the Coaches Poll, eight of the ranked teams are from non-BCS conferences, with conferences like the Mid-American Conference, Atlantic 10, West Coast Conference, and Mountain West earning representation among the big boys.
Ranked at No. 2 is Gonzaga, which is currently projected as a top seed in the NCAA Tournament. Akron is ranked at 24, earning buzz across the country and giving the MAC an opportunity to gain two tourney bids for the first time since 1999.
How is this a bad thing? How is a super team, like Kentucky last season, a more compelling story than the mystery of multiple very good teams fighting for a Final Four appearance?
Is Michigan vs. Ohio State playing to the final buzzer, Indiana vs. Michigan State fighting for a Big Ten title and Louisville losing to Notre Dame in five overtimes any less entertaining than in past seasons?
Of course not. This season has been filled with excitement, much like every other season of the sport. We need not worry that the sport is broken and needs fixing.
The sport didn’t break when they added the one-and-done rule, and the sport didn’t break every time the NCAA expanded the tournament.
College basketball, unique to any other sport, is impossible to break. Teams have to build a track record to make it into the field of 68. And once they get there, any team, from Norfolk State to Kansas State, can win a national championship.
If you think the sport has been boring this season, check your pulse.
ch203310@ohiou.edu
