You all MISSED the point of my original message. I did say 'with few exceptions' that this tournament has been boring...
I didnt say that the final 4 will be boring.
Only one of the elite 8 games was decided by less than 10 and only two were even competive. Average margin of victory, 12.5 including the 2 point Kansas win.
Only
one of the sweet 16 games was decided by less than 10 points. The average margin of victory was 15.5.
This means that really only 2 of the 12 games went down to the final few minutes with the game in doubt. The big picture, not very exciting.
OK...if "we have a DREAM FINAL FOUR", "a once in a lifetime matchup of the top four seeds in the Finals", and
"everyone wants to see the best teams advance"
...then why are we seeing all the headlines that I have
BOLDED IN RED????????????
I also have read the opinions that the ratings are down because some of the games have been blowouts.............but........
Here's why I think this logic is faulty and cannot explain the huge, 10% drop in ratings....
--first, there are blowouts in the first couple rounds every single year, and I have seen nothing to suggest that the blowouts
were any different this year than last year, so why are far fewer people watching this year's blowouts than last year's blowouts?
--second..in order to even know that a game is a blowout, you have to tune in and watch it at least for most of the game,
and the ratings would still note these people watching!!
So finding a game to be a blowout really wouldn't affect the ratings of that game at all, and it wouldn't affect the next game
since those teams in the next round would be two teams who each won in a blowout, and now are evenly matched with each other.
NOPE... I still hold to the opinion, that the NCAA shot itself in its own foot....
They left out the teams from the heartland and declined to give the bids to some teams and matched up others in mid-vs-mid
early round matches that guaranteed losses for some of the teams that (like Xavier and Davidson) would have given them the
better games and higher ratings, and they sacrificed some of the better mids by letting them get slaughtered as horribly low seeds."
Now that TWO whole weeks of NCAA games are done....here is the verdict.....
Ratings are way down...............
"CBS Needs a Big Final Four to Avoid Lowest NCAA Tournament Ratings Ever"
http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2008...l-four-to-avoid-lowest-ncaa-tournament-ratin/
"
With the exception of any game Stephen Curry plays in, this has been a fairly boring NCAA Tournament,
lacking in Cinderellas and buzzer beaters and the other things that make March Madness great."
"NCAA tourney: Wake me when it’s over"
http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/?p=759
" Kansas' 59-57 victory over Davidson in the Midwest Regional final Sunday topped the week with a 15.1 rating..."
http://newsok.com/article/3223580/1207052203
"March 31, 2008
ABC won its sixth Sunday in a row...
CBS was second, boosted by a half hour of NCAA overrun..."
(so only the last few minutes of the KU-Davidson game was the only thing that was the
least bit successful for CBS, otherwise, their whole programming night flopped)
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr...sion/news/e3ic39ffb939b8a580feda110cb16361b21
I am not saying that the NCAA should use ratings as their primary motivation....just saying that if they fiddle arbitrarily with
handing out bids and seeding teams in order to get viewers, then they are shooting themselves in the foot.
I AM SURE CBS wants to avoid ratings collapses, but that's exactly what they are giving themselves with thier arbitrary choices.
). And, with all of the pairity that is in the college game today, I find that truly incredible! I'm looking forward to watching 4 "storied" programs battle it out for the National Championship. Go Carolina! 
