There use to be a time when being on cable was a bad thing. If you were someone, you were on a network channel. No more, says the NCAA. College basketball’s Final Four will be splitting time between CBS and TBS. That’s right, the Final Four will share a network with King of the Nerds.
Starting in 2014 and 2015, the national semifinal games will move to TBS. Also, starting in 2016, CBS and TBS will rotate the national semifinals and championship game, with TBS going first in 2016. That annual rotation will continue through 2024.
Now today’s cable is not your mamma’s cable. Today, the best television on TV is found on cable (HBO’s Game of Thrones, AMC’s Mad Men and FX’s The Americans are just a few great shows only found on cable). Still, television shows are not sporting events. I know plenty of people who don’t have cable and will just watch those shows when they come out on DVD or are available online. You cant do that with a championship game.
For me, I’m disappointed by the news. It’s not that I think the move will be bad. I’m sure ratings will be fine. I guess I’m just nostalgic.
For a lot of reasons, college basketball remains stuck in the shadows of college football and this move isn’t going to help that. The fact is, ESPN now shows most college bowl games, including major bowls and the BCS title game on their cable network and the ratings don’t seem to be effected by it. I’m just not sure why college basketball needed to follow along. It’s one thing if you are using TBS, TNT and True TV to show every tournament game. That’s a wonderful concept. However, to put your feature product, the Final Four, on the same network whose best show is Courgar Town and Family Guy re-runs, just doesn’t feel right.
At this point it is too early to speculate on who will be calling these games, although if the rumor that Marv Albert will replace Jim Nantz is true, I think I just threw up a little in my mouth. I’m all for forgiveness, but any time I hear Albert calling a game, all I think about is him in a pair of woman’s panties, biting some lady.
