Sports

Creating a behind the scenes look of the March Madness NCAA tournament selection process

By March 22, 2013June 18th, 2018No Comments
selection-show-war-room

selection-show-war-roomAthletes racing giraffes and low level celebrities jumping off diving boards. Those are just two examples of reality shows that some major networks think need to be on television. These shows are garbage and I can’t believe that people with high paying jobs actually think they are a good idea none the less approve them to be on the air. This reminds me of one of the best scenes from the movie Tommy Boy.

Ted Nelson: “But why do they put a guarantee on the box?”

Tommy: “Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That’s all it is, isn’t it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time. But for now, for your customer’s sake, for your daughter’s sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality product from me.”

What the TV networks are severely lacking in is a quality product. Well I have just the solution for them that will not only be ratings gold but be the start of what will unquestionably be one of the highest rated shows for them on a regular basis that has a non-expiring shelf life. Create a reality show/inside look into what goes down with the NCAA tournament selection committee process.

How this hasn’t happened yet I have no clue. HBO already crushes it with Hard Knocks and and the 24/7 behind the scenes of the Winter Classic (when it actually happens) also does an amazing job. Get a camera crew in there and let us know what goes down leading up to the brackets being released. I have to imagine this is a lengthy process that starts as soon as the college basketball season gets under way. Let us hear their thoughts at the first meeting when the college basketball rankings are nothing more than fluff since conference tournament play hasn’t started yet. Let us hear how they handle Kentucky after Nerlens Noel goes down with a season ending injury. Give us insight into what happens when Indiana loses to Wisconsin in the Big 10 tournament and what their real thoughts are on Gonzaga being a number one seed. Sports fans would gobble this up like another round of Terry Richardson Kate Upton photos.

If integrity is what the selection committee is worried about then hold off on airing this until after the tournament is over. That way there is no conflict of interest and it would be a great follow up to what actually went down in the tournament. I don’t see how giving us insight into the inner workings of the committee would remove any shred of credibility to the process at all. If anything knowing what actually goes down would help us understand more about why teams were seeded as they were and why certain teams didn’t make the field. That seems like a win-win situation to me.

From the outside, being on the March Madness selection committee seems like a dream job that any of us would kill to have. Joe Linardi has made a career out of predicting the field and gives a year round update on what he thinks the brackets are going to be. If we are all so enthralled with March Madness that we are willing to read about who will be the 5-12 matchup in November then imagine how this show would perform. It would blow up like if Tivo and Spotify had a love child and that love child came out in the form of the greatest behind the scenes reality show ever.

I urge someone at HBO, CBS, or even TRU TV to wake up and seize the opportunity that is so blatantly obvious and right under their noses. It’s not often that you can have a guaranteed home run but in this case it’s a freaking walk-off. Make it happen!

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Rob Cressy

Rob Cressy

Sports loving free throw specialist and yinzer living in Chicago who is awesome most of the time, has run with the bulls in Spain, and is a graduate of Second City's Improv program.