5 Reasons a John Calipari, Kentucky National Title Is Bad for College Basketball

After over a decade of failed attempts to reach the national title, Kentucky finally steps back into the circle of champions. Boasting one of the youngest, most talented squads to ever cut down the nets, the college basketball community is, more or less, stunned by how truly potent this team turned out to be.

Watching one of the nation's most powerful programs return to prominence is inspiring within itself, yet I can't help but feel a pang of disgust at how bland their route to the title, not to mention the tournament overall, turned out.

As the dust surrounding the finality of March Madness begins to settle, we can begin to truly analyze the conclusion and resulting implications of the Wildcats hoisting the National Championship.

While many a writer might tell you that UK taking home the title is the best thing since fried chicken, I'm here to argue that it's possibly the worst outcome for the popular sport.

Here are my five reasons why Calipari leading Kentucky back into the light of title contention is bad for college basketball. 

No One Appreciates Too Much Chalk

As a college basketball fan, my favorite part of the entire postseason is knowing that, in all likelihood, there will be some surprises. I mean, they don't call it March Madness for the alliteration alone, right?

To put it simply, I love watching the underdog win. The American culture thrives on the simple fact that almost every one of us lusts for that David versus Goliath moment where the little guy comes out on top. Our country was even formed on such a basis with the Continental Army essentially taking down the all-powerful British Army.   

The sport of college basketball is even kind enough to give us a postseason seeding system so that most of the nation knows who they want to cheer for. It's brilliant when you think about it.

Therefore, when the No. 1 overall seed takes home the title, the country is at the point where we're just begging for the "madness" to stop. We desired to see the best of the best trip up halfway through this whole ordeal and provide a champion who wasn't the top ranked team going in.

It's just plain boring, and if the trend continues, who's truly going to want to watch the sport anymore?  

Discourages Cinderella Success

As I said before, America loves an underdog. To coincide with that, March Madness almost always provides us with the best underdog of all, a Cinderella squad. 

Breaking boundaries and crushing dreams, these teams emerge from nowhere to make a run at the Final Four. While most of us don't exactly want to see them take home the title, we almost always cheer for them against the powerhouses. 

Last season it was the 11-seed VCU and the year before it was the 12-seed Butler. Most every postseason has at least one, but this past year we had...fourth-seeded Louisville?

Wait a minute, they won the Big East Tournament and are consistently a threat so no dice. Alright, a fluke, but at least we had one in the Elite Eight, right? Wrong, we had seventh-seeded Florida who is, more or less, a well-known program with a lot of recent success. 

When the powerhouses take over, there is no room for the Cinderella squads. Unfortunately, the whole "March Madness" money-making system is based upon the continued success of underdogs, and when they don't pull through due to powerhouses becoming too powerful, the entire network collapses.     

Top-Notch Recruiting, Not Coaching Wins Titles

To all the Kentucky fans out there who will become enraged by the title of this slide, let me first calm your thoughts. I am NOT saying that John Calipari is a bad coach. In fact, I think he's one of the best due to the fact that he has been to four Final Fours, two National Championships and owns one title. You can't argue with that record.

However, it's more than prudent to conclude that he is easily one of the best recruiters this sport has ever seen. When he was at UMass, Calipari pulled in Naismith College Player of the Year Marcus Camby who ended up leading his team to a Final Four.

While at Memphis, he pulled in superstars such as Tyreke Evans, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Joey Dorsey on a consistent basis. There was also this point guard from Chicago named Derrick Rose...maybe you've heard of him?

In his first recruiting class with the Wildcats, Calipari pulled in the nation's top recruit John Wall in addition to DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton. The following two seasons were no different as the big-time coach secured Terrence Jones, Brandon Knight, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Marquis Teague and, most recently, this guy named Anthony Davis.

Kentucky can bring in one or two of the the nation's top recruits on name alone, but with Calipari they easily pick up that and more without breaking a sweat. Players rotate through the system with ever-increasing speed, leaving the teams that take time to develop recruits into superstars in the dust.

Essentially, it's Calipari's top-notch recruiting and not his coaching that has him and his team on top of the college basketball world, but is that truly the direction we want our sport to be heading in? A universe where the maturation of high school prospects is a thing of the past and programs only pick up recruits to play for one or two years, basing their worth not on potential, but talent alone? 

Prevents Emergence of Non-Traditional Programs

As with every sport, there are power programs that consistently dominate over the course of decades. For college basketball, those few programs include UCLA, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, UConn, North Carolina, Duke and Michigan State. 

Although the presence of these powerhouses in the sport will always be strong, we as fans enjoy watching new threats emerge. These "outsiders" work to consistently jeopardize the big boys' dominance, hoping to someday join the ranks of the elite programs.

Similar to Cinderella squads, however, they need a window of opportunity to arise for them to take control. With the strong recruiting styles and powerful play of Kentucky and their brethren, there may never be another real shot for the smaller programs to seize a spot amongst the elite.

This in itself is depressing to the core. There are 68 teams that enter the tournament every year and I would hate to know that everyone, save the powerhouses mentioned above, truly have no chance to compete for the title.   

Does Experience Mean Nothing?

The Wildcats brought home the National Championship under the guise of five underclassmen, all of who contributed a massive amount to the team's success. Ranging from sophomore phenomena Terrence Jones to freshman superstar Anthony Davis, this extremely talented squad is easily one of the youngest to ever win a title. 

When matched up against some of the more experienced teams in the nation, Kentucky dominated with ease, crushing the opposition despite their obvious disadvantage. When taking on Kansas, Thomas Robinson and Tyshawn Taylor stood no match for Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Anthony Davis.

Against Louisville, Kyle Kuric and Peyton Siva were completely thrown off their game as Marquis Teague and Doron Lamb owned the court. Experience was easily trumped, it seemed, by the loads of talent that the Wildcats controlled.