The Disappearance of Championship Week

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Championship week is here and for the first time in awhile there's no excitement for it.  We've reached the point in March where the greatest four weeks of sports are about to begin and nobody cares.  I see it differently.

College basketball has had a down year.  The caliber of teams hasn't been as good. There are no real dominate teams. Everyone seems beatable. All these factors will make the conference tournaments that much better.

I think people are missing out on why college basketball is so special. There aren't any other sports that have meaningful conference tournaments like college basketball has. Where else will you ever find a tournament before the tournament that could decide the fate of so many teams and whether or not they make it into the playoffs?  No where.

That's why these tournaments that have begun and will continue through Sunday are so special, because there is so much riding on it. It's not just about the teams involved in each conference, but the bubble teams looking in hoping a spot doesn't get popped, and they always do. College basketball has been down this year, but it's about to pick back up. The Big East tournament is always amazing. Something about the aura of Madison Square Garden just brings out the best in these conference rivals.

I don't think I have to remind anyone about Syracuse/UConn last year.

We have potential for big matchups like a Duke versus Maryland, Kansas versus Kansas State and Syracuse versus Villanova, but we know from years past that the best matchups are the ones we don't see coming.

Another thing I hope I never see comes is the expansion of the 65 team field for March Madness. I could talk for awhile about how it dilutes the field or makes it less meaningful to make it to the big dance, but what it really is going to do is take away from Championship Week.

If the field was expanded to 96 teams then teams like UConn, Illinois, Rhode Island, Memphis, Dayton, Washington, and Ole Miss would not have to be worrying about making it. What makes the 65 team field so great is that it is still difficult to make it. You can have 20 wins in a power conference and still not get in.

I don't want 96 teams. I don't want to debate about how every single team from the Big East should make the tournament and I don't want to see North Carolina playing for their life in the ACC tournament hoping they grab a 15th seed in the NCAA's so they could go up against a 9th seed.

I love how college basketball is right now. I love the 65 team field, I love the play-in game, and of course I love all of March Madness. What's missed though is that the conference tournaments are really what will set the scene for next week's playoff games.

There's nothing like March Madness in any other sport and there's nothing like the conference tournaments that we are thankfully graced with every year in college basketball. Let's just sit back and enjoy them for what they are; a glimpse of what March Madness will be like.

I just hope we don't increase March Madness because then the conference tournaments would disappear.