College sports has experienced a revolution in the last few years. “Name, image and likeness” (NIL) payments are letting players get paid. The transfer portal is letting them change schools more easily. And the rise of sports betting has brought new pressures. All of this is on display during March Madness.
The NCAA tournaments are not “just about basketball anymore,” said Forbes. Instead, March Madness is the “biggest branding stage” in college sports. Amateur players used to have to wait for graduation or to turn pro before (legally) making money from their on-court exploits. Now tournament time is the “prime earning window” for college hoopsters. Viral moments create “instant brand appeal,” while big sponsors are shifting ad dollars away from NBA players to undergrads. Not every March star will make it to the pros, so the college years are the best moment for them to “cash in on endorsement deals.”
Money is flowing everywhere. The more than $3 billion expected to be wagered on this year’s men’s and women’s tournament is “more than double the betting on the Super Bowl,” said On3. The growth of legal sports betting means “more fans than ever have the opportunity to bet legally and responsibly,” said Joe Maloney, spokesman for the American Gaming Association. The downside: Betting pressures have caused athletes to “experience an increase in online harassment and abuse” during the tournament, said The Houston Chronicle.
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The influx of money and never-ending player transfers “were supposed to destroy men’s college basketball,” Will Leitch said at The Washington Post. The opposite occurred. Now, the sport is entering “a new era of excitement” because of the changes. NBA mock drafts are filled with college players who “thrived specifically because they’re playing college basketball — and being paid to do so.” Duke’s Cooper Flagg, the top player in the game, once might have “bypassed college basketball.” The changes have made the “sport more sustainable, and stronger, than it has been in years.”
Sports wagers are “fun, and March Madness shows us why,” Jason Russell said at Reason. “Tens of millions” of Americans make NCAA brackets, which is good for the game. “There’s more interest in March Madness because more people are making brackets.” A lot of folks who criticize sports betting are “going to make a bracket,” Russell said. “Hopefully, they realize how much fun it is and get over themselves.”
What next?
Women’s college basketball is in a “historic growth period” after Caitlin Clark’s stardom in 2024, said The Athletic. It nonetheless remains “hard to bet on women’s college basketball.” That will probably change. Experts no longer expect a “stark disparity between men’s and women’s college basketball betting” five years from now, but the existing gap suggests gaming operators do not “value women’s college basketball enough.”
Money is not everything, though. The Saint Francis men’s team made the NCAA “First Four” play-in games with “$0 in NIL” money to pay players, said CBS Sports. That made it “one of the best stories” of the tournament. But not a Cinderella story, alas: Saint Francis’ Red Flash lost their opening game to Alabama State, 70-68.
