by Orrin Konheim

Created on: December 25, 2008   Last Updated: June 23, 2010

March Madness has more appeal than the NBA among casual sports fans but more fans isn't neccessarily what has the ultimate say in this debate.

I will admit that the sheer number of games in a regular season takes away the value of each game (an NBA season is approximately three times longer than a college team's season), but each game is better in the NBA. It's for the same reason that even though an uneducated spectator without a stopwatch couldn't tell the difference between sprinters at a high school meet, or sprinters in the Olympics,  you would have a much harder time getting someone to tune into a high school track meet than the Olympics: It's the authenticity of knowing that the people on the court are the best at what they do.

There's also an interesting issue of whether the familiarity and brand name of the players is better. Since college players are leaving within a year from college and NBA players stay within the league of several years, you can become familiar and actively root for players in the NBA better. On the other hand, there are far more trades in the NBA then there are students who transfer, so you're allegiance to those players based on their team affiliation is more in flux and a player who you might actively follow might go from being a starter to being either on a non-playoff or an underused reserve and become invisible (for example, has anyone heard about the whereabouts of Zach Randolph, Trenton Hassell, Jamal Magloire, or Antoine Walker recently?). In this sense, trades and the constant firing of coaches do make it hard for fans to get attached to teams in the NBA and coaches get fired at the college level with a little less frequency. Ideally, however, the NBA and college basketball are symbiotic in the branding of players if they start in college and make a name for themselves there like Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony or, way back in the day, Grant Hill. On the level of NBA players who aren't superstars, you might be a fan of someone like Morris Petersen for winning Tom Izzo a championship at Michigan State. At the same time, you might also have a casual interest in following him on the New Orleans Hornets where he's been a bit player for four years.

There are also arguments that the college game is purer because the NBA players have ruined the spirit of the game with their big cars and large paychecks that they squander away and don't deserve. NBA players might be paid too much but the NCAA players are being paid too little. Many of them help their schools make significant amounts of money and they don't see a dime of it while some of their families are in very strong need of financial assistance. I understand the spirit of amateurism but I think college basketball players are being exploited.

Lastly, there's the argument of the playoff system. There's no question that March Madness generates more excitement than practically anything else in the sports world, primarily because its high degree of randomness makes it ideal for gambling. I think Cinderella stories are great but I can only see so many before I start to want to see a real champion. If a team manages to win that all-elusive NBA championship or make it deep into the playoffs, it's because they've earned it. No one gets lucky by beating a team in multiple games.

Then again, some are right to argue that could shorten the length of the post-season by cutting down on the number of games in the first couple of rounds and the current length of the postseason drains out some of the excitement.  In the end, it's a matter of preference and neither game is without its flaws.

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