Basketball in Indiana is cherished the way baseball is in St. Louis. It’s cultural. It’s spiritual. It’s serenity. It’s an identity. And as announced Monday, the state of Indiana will host every game in the 2021 NCAA Men’s Tournament, a turn-of-events that’s fitting and will give the tourney some pure allure.
Though this charm will be countered by the smarm.
Because never has the NCAA Tournament been more about making money than in 2021. The NCAA needs its unpaid student-athletes to survive this season of COVID and contact tracing and cancellations so the players can cash in … for everyone else. When the tourney was canceled in 2020, the NCAA announced a loss of $375 million. The repercussions permeated athletic programs, which fired staff and even dropped teams. And so, never has amateurism been more about profiting — college sports can’t afford to miss another March Madness.
