Ides of March: College Basketball at the Crossroads

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where March Madness has arrived and this week your hosts set out to forecast the future of the college basketball. With the transfer portal humming and student athletes’ taking advantage of fifth-year eligibility, the sport as a whole hit some historic statistical benchmarks amidst great parody and competitive balance. All is not so bullish as it pertains to the future though. Despite the arrival of NIL and athletes finally able to legally profit off themselves, the emergence of the G-League as an alternative to college for elite high school recruits, the inevitable downsides of power conference expansion and re-alignment, and the potential havoc these factors may wreak upon the on-court college basketball product are all signs of a sport in a state of serious flux. But first, let there be rants: where Zak reviews another week in behavioral dereliction with the presumptive loser of the 2024 GOP Presidential primary Ron DeSantis; Ed presents Dr. Aaron Donald Rodgers or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace My New Asshole Quarterback; and finally Andrew chastises Hollywood’s celebration of amoral billionaire sneaker mavens in light of Ben Affleck’s forthcoming Phil Knight/Sonny Vaccaro biopic.