The Bernstein Brief: Is College Basketball In Trouble?
By Dan Bernstein-
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) The excitement of college hoops in March doesn't feel like it once did, but you probably chalked that up to just getting older and busier, with more sports concerns and a more complicated life than when you were in school.
Turns out it's objectively true, though. The buzz isn't the same because fewer people care.
Average attendance for Division-I men's basketball has fallen seven straight years, down from 5,327 in 2006-'07 to 4,817 last season, according to a recent AP report. Ratings for the sport are down for both ESPN and CBS, with the former off 6 percent from last year alone.
The NCAA and power conferences are looking at ways to make the product more entertaining, fully aware that too many of their games have become unwatchable slogs of missed shots, fouls and deliberate possessions that take too much time before anything happens in 35 seconds.
The next few weeks will have their usual share of wild outcomes and improbabilities, but college basketball knows it has to confront some painful reality right now, with the sport facing fundamental problems of aesthetics and declining interest.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. Follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.
