Each year, the biggest college basketball programs in the country start their trek to Final Four glory in late fall. This is after they have their annual ‘midnight madness’, where students camp out for days at a chance to get in to see their future stars put on a show, reminiscent of Dancing with the Stars. Then, for a cherry on top, the head coach usually evangelizes his team and says that they are going all the way, and then the squads split up and play against each other to rousing cheers and thoughts of a trophy in April.
Once that’s all done, the players and fans get ready for the regular season, usually consisting of 30 or more regular season games. Of these, about a dozen or so are ‘non-conference’ matchups, that make no rhyme or reason to some hardcore rooters of these storied programs. For example, at the start of the 2015-16 season, the Kentucky Wildcats, the perennial top five team for the last five years, had the likes of the University of Albany, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Kentucky State University on their schedule. All of these were home games for UK, at the famous Rupp Arena in Lexington, where folks wait hours for tickets that aren’t available during the SEC conference games.
It’s a great opportunity for fans who don’t normally get to see Coach Cal’s team play, and Kentucky usually demolishes these much more inferior opponents, who often times walk away saying they were ‘this close’ to perhaps the next national championship team. UK is not the only school that does this annually. Check out Duke, Michigan State, UNC, and the other powerhouses around the country. It’s a yearly rite of passage and gives the NBA stars of the future a means to show their wares and put on a clinic.
Question that needs to be asked is whether it’s fair to those opposing schools to have to endure the embarrassment of what sometimes are 40-50 point losses. Some say who cares, the schools have agreed to play these much better programs, and it’s good exposure for the kids who may not have been good enough, or weren’t discovered by the larger D-1 schools. So, why do these schools and their athletic departments put the kids in such a position? The answer of course is money.
Many schools who play a lot of non-conference games on the road, at the larger programs, can bring in anywhere from $200,000 – $750,000 a year to that program, for future sports at that college or university. That’s a great deal of money for scholarships, not only to the basketball program, but to other sports – men’s and women’s. In addition, some of those schools end up making post season tournaments because they were able to recruit a good ‘B’ player or junior college transfer. Those schools love non-conference play, despite being out-played in well over 95% of the games.
For those larger host schools, this may be nothing more than ‘padding’ their schedule to become undefeated, or darn well close to it when conference play begins. There may be the occasional, and very unlikely, major upset, but it happens. Monmouth University not only beat UCLA in Los Angeles, but in recent weeks bested USC, Notre Dame, and a first win against a Big East opponent in Georgetown. Now, MU might be better than Albany or NJIT, but it’s a great way to get those programs on the map, and have a little face time on SportsCenter.
Talking to the real die hard fans of some of the top programs, they seem to like the harder opponents better early on which, they believe, will get them more ready for conference play and hopefully a long run during March Madness. They think that padding the early schedule with ‘fluff’ teams, that no one’s heard of, much less knowing they were a pillar of higher learning, does not make their program look strong to the coaches and writers who have to rank them each week. It’s an interesting discussion, much like whether kids should be able to play in a man’s league after one year, some of them only being 18 years of age.
At the end of the day, it’s certainly entertaining to see your team play, no matter who that team is that takes the court. Fans, as rabid as they are, wait well over six months to see them back on the court, hoping to achieve that glory run through the field of 68. That’s what college sports is all about – the fans, the cheering, and the opportunity for NBA scouts to find that diamond in the rough from some unknown schools around the country. If not for non-conference battles, the season would certainly be much shorter, and not as entertaining. There’s money to be made by these programs, and it helps fund those lesser programs at their schools.
So, for those tried and true fans that want to see the best of the best – keep in mind that most folks just like to have basketball back, and in many states, that is the only sport that matters. Not everyone can boast multiple professional teams, or colleges for that matter. They wear their colors proudly, paint their faces, and dress up the kiddies as the team mascot each Halloween. It’s also an opportunity to allow the non-season ticket holders to catch an early game, and say they’ve been to see the next championship team in their state. It’s that time of year after all, and that’s what this is all about. Time for the holiday tourney’s to commence! Happy New Year to all.
