Apart from a particularly exciting finale four, the NCAA tournament 2025 is determined when March Madness does the oral in March. If you blame zero as the basic cause of a relatively dram -free post -season, this can be placed incorrectly.
One last four with four No. 1 seeds only took place once – and it happened to be in San Antonio. The semi -final field in 2025 from Auburn, Duke, Florida and Houston joins the four of Kansas, Memphis, North Carolina and UCLA in 2008.
This time, however, it feels different than the way to San Antonio in 2025 took far less of the rounds of the Bracket Busting redirections that the NCAA tournament so committed. There are no parallels to Western Kentucky, who advance to Sweet 16, another equivalent to Steph Curry, who almost solely shoots Davidson into the final Four.
Realistically speaking, a 2025 version of Curry could have come out of a program like Davidson the previous year and achieved an average semester season with an average of 21.5 points per game.
Yes, College basketball in 2025 looks very different than in 2008, and not just because the uniforms are no longer strange. The most amazing difference results from the decision of the Supreme Court in 2021 in National Collegiate Athletic Association against AlstonWhat enabled the players to benefit from their resemblance.
Since the introduction of zero has marked such a dramatic departure from the past 11 decades and a change in College sports, this is an easy fault that is responsible for this year’s unusually predictable march. It is also a simplified simplification.
The Alston The decision occurred in the middle of a dizzying period of changes, including the unprecedented relaxation of the transfer rules and some of the most transformative conference management in university sports.
Starting with Realignment, Using 2008 Conference Affiliations Gives Us A 2025 Sweet 16 with Representation from Two Acc teams (Duke, Maryland), Three Big Teams (Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue), One Big 12 Team (Texas Tech), One Conference USA Team (Houston), one Mountain West team (BYU), One PAC-12 Team (Arizona) and Seven Sec Teams (Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Tennessee).
The entire distribution of the conferences represented is not yet so consolidated and even includes two conferences with a medium-sized period. During the application even 2021 conference affiliations, we receive a sweet 16 with only one arbitrary mid-major League (Houston) and a definitive mid-major league in the West Coast Conference (BYU).
Conferences of power that swell on 16 and 18 teams contribute more to a feeling of monotony in this tournament than to everything Nil did. The facilitation of transmission restrictions can be greater than the realignment of the conference with a squad in the regular river. As mentioned in relation to Curry’s career at Davidson, a breakout can be free of time Major sensation during this time to leave a more prominent program without punishment.
The rich become a line from Dave Moss that gets richer – that is the law of the country.
In fact, many transfers have shaped themselves with these and the youngest NCAA tournaments. Alabama rose to the Elite Eight and Light Four this season with stars from Ohio (Mark Sears) and North Dakota State (Grant Nelson) and Hofstra (Aaron Estrada).
In a way, however, transfers can prove to be in this era of college basketball what the one-and-done newcomer was in 2008.
The 2008 season was comparable to 2025 because it was only removed from a pioneering change change – namely the NBA, which implemented an age restriction for the draft. Instead, the availability of prospects of Blue-Chip High School, which would have jumped directly to the professionals in the past eight years, made it the highest priority for top animal programs.
Some of these blue chipper had a significant impact on championship candidates. Kevin Love was Uclas Star in 2008, and Derrick Rose became Memphis during the NCAA tournament as the future NBA player.
But for 15 years, the NBA introduced the age restriction until the Covid was changed, and stood on the best -equipped squad, which routinely deal with the national championships that best equipped.
Likewise, cadres should be more successful than Jell – whether as newcomers or transfers who have spent several seasons together, more successful than teams based on mercenaries who follow Nil deals in every off -season.
And this extends to the ash disorders that often appear in March.
This tournament almost produced such an example with UC San Diego. If the tritons in the first round had lost the sweet 16-bundled Michigan with the 16-bundled Michigan-after he had lost in 2023-24 Bryce Pope to Southern California-the conversation about this off-season could be different.
The same applies to the Colorado State, which defends the Summer-Beater in Colorado to send Maryland to Sweet 16 or UNC Wilmington, which coach Takayo Siddle signed immediately after his NCAA tournament and held on a late lead against Texas Tech.
College basketball is at a time of adaptation, which is partly due to zero. But madness will return to March with time and adaptation.
