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In fairness to the NBA game, there could not be a more biased time of the year to make this comparison: The Kansas Jayhawks came from behind to beat Memphis, securing Kansas' third national NCAA men's basketball title. "Big Dance" - the Men's NCAA Tournament - is also known as the greatest event in the sports year, spanning three weeks of never-ending thrills and excitement.

If this comparison between the NCAA and NBA were made in June, during the last of two months of NBA playoff games, the comparison might be a little closer. At this time of year, and perhaps overall, the NCAA proves more exciting to fans. But let's weigh the factors:

REGULAR SEASON: Advantage NCAA

Although the college season has been extended to now reach or exceed 30 games even before the NCAA tournament, practically all of the games from January onward are exciting and meaningful. After the schools complete their lighter non-conference schedules, along with some glamorous games also in the mix, January heralds the start of conference play. Typical conference schedules are in the range of 16 games or so for the larger conferences, a few more for the smaller conferences, all featuring dogged rivalries and season-long battles for top seeding in the conference tournaments with the goal for all 300+ NCAA Division I Basketball teams to reach the NCAA tournament.

The NBA season, at 82 games, is a relic of the past and is far too long in this age of coast-spanning travel leading to exhausted players that pace themselves through meaningless games and often show less than full effort from game to game. The best regular NBA season in recent memory was the strike-shortened 50 game season of a few years ago, when every game truly was meaningful, although the playoffs still ran the usual two months or so.

THE PLAYOFFS: Advantage NCAA

While the Conference tournaments in the NCAA build excitement to a fever pitch leading to the announcement of the NCAA tournament teams at the end of the week, the NBA playoffs lead to mental exhaustion for the fans as the teams that reach the NBA Finals have played through three best of seven series with every series, other than the occasional four game sweep, taking more than a week. In the NCAA, teams that have underperformed get one final chance to win their conference tournament to earn a spot in "the Dance;" in the NBA under-performing teams can still slog through a seven game series while entering the playoffs with a less than .500 record if from the Eastern Conference

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