<![CDATA[Lesson from a collegiate athletic postseason, part one]]>

<![CDATA[Lesson from a collegiate athletic postseason, part one]]>What’s so pathetic about college football’s current concern about keeping asses in the seats in the new CFP era is that the suits have had a laboratory experiment running for decades now with men’s college basketball. And it’s as if nobody learns anything from anything.

If the whole product of college basketball doesn’t intrigue, could attendance numbers continue to freefall?

“If the game doesn’t present a compelling product, I don’t think you can expect people to pay for it,” Bilas said. “It just doesn’t work that way.”

Read the litany of options and issues expressed in the article. Most of them are distressingly familiar.

And as for presenting a compelling product, how compelling can it truly be when the regular season is nothing more than a holding pattern for March Madness? What do I mean by that? This is an example:

Mark Fox says if this was the NCAA Tournament, Kenny gaines would have played today. #UGA

— Logan Booker (@LoganMBooker) March 14, 2015

Fox’ team played a meaningless game yesterday; it’s already in the Tournament and nobody’s getting by Kentucky today, anyway. So from his standpoint, it’s prudent to let one of his key players rest and heal. But from a fan’s standpoint, what kind of message is being received from a decision like that?

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