The greatest weekend of televised sports has passed. As usual, CBS blew the coverage. Fear not, viewers — I have 5 ways to fix CBS’ March Madness coverage next year:
1) Teams that are located hours from me are not local
I live in Philadelphia. For some reason, we always, ALWAYS get the Pittsburgh games, no matter what other great game is on. We got the Bucknell-Memphis game and they refused to swich away even though it was clearly over. I also got the Seton Hall (New Jersey) game in round one, even though the other two games (BC-Pacific and UWM-Okla) were going to be far more interesting games. Which leads me to my next point…
2) MAJOR upset possibilities are far more compelling than close seeded games.
They showed Seton Hall – Wichita State and Marquette-Alabama in the first round, both 7-10 games. (Note: a 9 over 8 or a 10 over 7 is NOT an upset.) At the same time, the aforementioned 4-13 and 6-11 games, both close, were not only better games but big upset potentials. Instead of Montana-Nevada or Wintrop-Tennessee, again two games that figured to be evenly matched and good upset possibilities, we got a boring 7-10 game. People who don’t understand basketball might think that the 7-10 and 8-9 games have a better chance to be close, but a double-digit upset is what tourney fans live for. Let us have it. (You can always switch to the 7-10 in a blowout!)
3) In the first round, big names don’t matter!
Yes, I know everyone likes to watch Duke. If they are playing East Jabib State, however, I don’t care. The beauty of the opening round is that people and teams we’ve never heard up become stars for one weekend. The Dukes and UNCs will have their moment in the later rounds.
4) Switch games faster
There’s nothing worse than watching some boring game while some major upset is brewing on the top right corner of the screen. After lulling you to sleep, CBS brings you to the other game just in time to see a few foul shots that ice the victory. It is as if they are afraid to take you away from a game, lest it all of a sudden become good. Grow a pair! Take viewers to the best game! Of course, you could also…
5) Take NBC’s lead with the Olympics
Show multiple games at once on other Viacom stations. All of my programming notes above would be moot if all the games were available to me. Let people watch the game they want to watch! You can’t tell me that if ABC got the tournament (which would be one of the greatest days in television sports history), they wouldn’t have every single game shown in its entirety on one of the ESPN networks.
On the other hand, the decision this year to stream all games online for free was a great one. Hey CBS — Congrats! You finally did something right!