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Better Final Four: Basketball Or Football – Tuesday Question
Which Final Four is bigger and better, basketball or football? We answer that today in our weekly Tuesday Question.
March 28, 2016
Tuesday Question: Which Final Four is bigger and better, basketball or football?
Can college football capture the magic of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and its Final Four weekend? Is college basketball’s main event still the real Final Four, or has the College Football Playoff taken over?
Which Final Four is bigger and better – basketball or football?
The answers below in the weekly Tuesday Question.
Pete Fiutak
While the idea of the Final Four is and always will be a college basketball thing, the College Football Playoff is quickly becoming more significant, and more importantly, a better representation of what a true four-team playoff should and could be.
Look at what’s happening with the 2016 college basketball Final Four. Kansas won the Big 12 championship for the bazillionth year in a row. It was the best team in the conference by a whopping three games over Oklahoma and two games over West Virginia, and proved it further by taking the Big 12 Conference Tournament title.
But Oklahoma is in the Final Four, and Kansas isn’t.
Kansas got a nice 2016 Big 12 Champion t-shirt, but all the accomplishments of the regular season are now meaningless – Oklahoma’s season is now better, just like the 2014 Kentucky team that got to the national title game had a better year than the historic 2015 version that didn’t.
Syracuse finished ninth in the ACC, got hot for four games, and it’s in the Final Four. Essentially, college basketball’s national championship is determined by a gimmicky tournament – play this thing 15 different times and you’ll likely get 15 different Final Four combinations.
You can’t luck your way into the tournament, and it’s a far, far better representation of who the best teams are, as opposed to the basketball version. Make the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament about conference champions only, and then you have something. But instead, as long as you’re not totally miserable, you should be able to get into the 68-team field.
Yeah, there was a problem with the timing and the dates for Year Two of the CFP, and the ratings took a massive dip, but it’s still the second year of the thing and it’s soon going to take on a life of its own. The college basketball Final Four is still bigger in the national consciousness, but the teams, the pressure, and don’t forget, the talent – the NFL prospect star power is bigger in the football version – make the football version simply a better final four playoff.
Jonathan Bass
Basketball’s Final Four is better and it ain’t even close.
It’s the culmination of a long season, and an event that college basketball builds everything around. College football, on the other hand, is still beholden to the regular season – which, it should be noted, is way better than basketball’s regular season.
The entire NCAA Tournament adds excitement to the Final Four, whereas Bowl Season dilutes the competition and beats you into the ground – it’s crescendo vs. a merciful tap out.
As for which is bigger: right now it’s probably basketball’s Final Four … but not for long.
Football is king, and once the College Football Playoff has its feet under itself – and finds a date better than New Year’s Eve – it’ll be the premier sporting event in America, giving even the Super Bowl a run for its money. If we revisit this question five years from now, the answer will unquestionably be football.
Rich Cirminello
Football.
Listen, if the conversation centered on the totality of each postseason, March Madness routs a college bowl season that’s become increasingly bland, bloated and boring. But when comparing solely each Final Four, football has the edge in excitement and anticipation.
Hoops in March is just a phenomenal fan experience, with the interactive engagement that reaches every little corner of the map. But for all of its glory and shining moments, March Madness peaks on the first Thursday and Friday of the tourney, when pools still show potential and interest is at its highest. However, by the time April has arrived, fatigue has set in for many, especially for those no longer eligible for prize money and office bragging rights.
The bowl season, on the other hand, travels a disparate trajectory, building anticipation as the two biggest games approach. You’ve slept walked through a wave of December snoozers, few of which carry any imaginable meaning, so the hunger for impactful football games is at its highest as the Final Four nears. Plus, while the original Final Four has been around for more than 75 years, playoff college football is still very much a novelty for fans.
Now that the postseason has expanded in football, its Final Four has actually trumped hoops. Two great—and distinct—venues, loads of tremendous matchups to contemplate and a well-deserved reward for slogging through a month of bowl games generating more yawns than plotlines. Now, stop the silliness of staging games on the evening of New Year’s Eve and football’s Final Four will really be off and running.
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