Has March Madness Been Boring?

March Madness has been different this year.  It’s been so boring that I spent two weeks preparing my third mock draft for the NFL instead of talking about the tournament. However, after a technical mishap caused the ‘March Madness’ episode of STN’s—my school’s television network—Sports Squawk to be erased, I need to share my thoughts.

It goes without saying that people lose interest as soon as their bracket gets busted. It’s unfair to blame the namesake “madness” kills the hype around what is undoubtedly the best college sports playoff, but this year’s tournament has just felt different.

The hype around this tournament started to die in the conference championship tournaments that took place before March Madness even began. Out of the teams considered as potential “Number 1 Seeds” in the tournament—UConn, Tennessee, North Carolina, Houston, and Purdue—only UConn won their conference championship.

Houston was dismantled by Iowa State in the Big 12 conference championship, getting embarrassed 69-41. North Carolina was outlasted by the number 10 seed NC State Wolfpack in the ACC Conference Title game.  Purdue didn’t even make the Big 10 Final, and Tennessee was humiliated by the nine-seed Bulldogs of Mississippi State. It’s this common pattern of losing that truly kills the excitement of a one-seed getting eliminated. Were people even talking when Alabama knocked off the Tarheels?

The best teams in this tournament have looked beatable—except for UConn.

UConn has been the heavy favorite for this tournament. Being the only one-seed to win their conference Tournament and having played unreal basketball throughout the entirety of the year, it could not have been anybody else. The problem is: UConn still hasn’t lost.

While everyone else has slipped at some point, the Huskies haven’t. They’ve handled everybody that has come their way, including Big 10 Champion Illinois, who they held scoreless for the first seven minutes of the second half. That’s not a knock-on Connecticut, they’re just that good. A team would need to play the game of their lives offensively and defensively. Should they lose in the final four, the world will be talking about what really looks like an upset.

The other problem here is the upsets. If you remember last year, (13) Furman stunned (4) Virginia at the Buzzer, 15th-seed Princeton beat 2-seed Arizona and 7 seed Missouri to reach the Sweet Sixteen, and how could we forget (16) Fairleigh Dickinson University of one-seed Purdue? A lot of the heavy hitters in last year’s March Madness tournament were gone quickly. It made UConn’s run to the championship far more exciting because it truly felt like any of these teams could win—but more importantly any of these teams could lose.

Coming back to the present time, the upsets just haven’t had the same impact. Apart from Yale over Auburn and Oakland over Kentucky, none of the upsets really felt “tournament changing.” Even though many double-digit seeds did “upset” higher seeds, the results didn’t feel like upsets. Fans and media personnel predicted (11) NC State over (6) Texas Tech, (12) James Madison over (5) Wisconsin, (11 Oregon over (6) South Carolina, and (11) Duquesne over (6) BYU.

The biggest “upsets” of the tournament were (14) Oakland over (3) Kentucky, (12) Grand Canyon over (5) St. Mary’s, and (13) Yale over (4) Auburn. But those three upsets didn’t really have major consequences on the tournament because none of those teams made it past the round of 32.

Was St. Mary’s good enough to go on a run? Sure. You can say the same about Auburn and Kentucky. However, what makes this tournament impressive is when a team that isn’t expected to go far has a "Cinderella Run" . We all remember (11) Loyola-Chicago making the Final Four in 2018, (15) Princeton made the Sweet Sixteen last year, and the run of (15) St. Peter’s to reach the Elite Eight in 2022 was Incredible.

The only thing keeping this tournament remotely interesting is the rise of NC State. They went from being an afterthought for the tournament to becoming the Cinderella team behind forward DJ Burns Jr. After getting wins in the ACC Tournament against UNC, Duke, and Virginia—the one, two, and three seeds in the ACC—there’s no way that NC State should have been ranked as low as eleven.

I’m not going to blame the Wolfpack for the selection committee’s decision making, and maybe I have the benefit of hindsight, but how this team was ranked lower than Virginia in the KenPom rankings, and they beat Virginia twice in 2024. Virginia may have been a “last four in” team, but they were a 10-seed in the tournament and got embarrassed by Colorado State.

If anything, this NC State team has played far beyond its seeding. This presents a “glass half full or glass half empty” scenario. Is NC State having a Cinderella run, or did the committee rank them too low? Maybe both can be true, but saying one limits the magnitude of the other.

Which leads us to the Final Four matchups later on April 6th. (1) UConn versus (4) Alabama, and (1) Purdue versus (11) NC State. This is the last chance that this year’s March Madness has to give us some incredible excitement, and I’m cautiously optimistic.

Alabama beat one-seed North Carolina earlier in this March Madness tournament, maybe they can do it again. NC State took down that same number one seed to win the ACC Tournament. Both teams have proven that they can beat the best of the best. It’s not impossible, but it’s fairly unlikely.

Like every journey, it’s not about how March Madness started, it’s about how March Madness ends. This tournament has been underwhelming to say the least, but an electric final four could change the legacy of "The 2024 Big Dance." For the sake of the tournament, I hope the Purdue, UConn, Alabama, and NC State can put on a show. If not, it will be a boring end to a boring tournament.