[rtbtParticipant]

Some of the younger guys in this forum are used to the current TV format but I’m old enough to remember when college basketball was much better. Here’s the problem.

A few years ago a TV network bean counter, who doesn’t understand basketball, came up with the stupid idea of a TV timeout every 4 minutes at the 16,12,8, and 4 minute mark of each half so his precious network could make more money. Incredibly, this absurd idea actually became a rule.

I cannot begin to describe how this ruins the game. Prior to this idiotic format, team depth was critical if you wanted to go far in the NCAA tournament. Now there are 8 TV timeouts per game which last approximately 3-4 minutes each. That comes to a grand total of 24-32 minutes of pre-programmed commercials per game, providing lots of rest for your starters.

There’s no continuity to the contest because of all the stoppages. And when you throw in what seems like 50 time outs per team, it’s no wonder that a 40 minute game takes two hours to play.

I realize money rules in America so I understand the need for TV Timeouts, however, 4 per half is absurd. Here’s my simple solution.

1. Reduce the TV Timeouts to 3 per half, which means stoppages at the 15, 10, and 5 minute mark. This may not seem like much but it will eliminate 2 TV timeouts per game while providing adequate revenue for the networks.

2. Reduce the number of team timeouts by 1. They already stop the game far too often for commercials, so why do you need so many team timeouts?

What do you guys think? If you agree I think you should pepper TV networks with lots of emails complaining about this. You should also send your email complaints to the NCAA

rtbt

[DanEboyParticipant]

Unfortunately it will never change. Much like a previous post about having a 1 game NBA finals, this is all about money. Nowadays, people will do whatever they can to get more advertising dollars. I had to keep being reminded that I was watching a football game yesterday between all of the commercial breaks and the halftime show.

[rtbtParticipant]

DanEboy, here’s some trivia for you. Yesterday’s Superbowl set an all time record with 48 minutes of commercials for a 60 minute game.

Now think about college basketball which only has a 40 minute game yet they have 32 minutes of pre-programmed TV commercials per game without counting the team timeouts. When you add the commercials for team timeouts, it probably comes close to the 48 minutes from the Superbowl, however, it’s for a 40 minute game.

[Da1potParticipant]

I could not agree more… I absoletly hate the t.v. timeout and it allows teams without depth to be better than they are. I am a huge Georgtown fan and I know that they are a top ten ranked team, but I find it hard to believe that they would be as good as they are this year without the amount of commericals and timeouts that the NCAA allows them. I know they are very talented, but they have no depth and only one point guard on the entire roster! I am not taking anything away from athletes’ conditioning and such, but fatigue is not as much of factor as it used to be, because there is so much time to recover. Even when you attend a pro/college basketball game, the “media timeouts” are frustrating when you look on the court and see the players talking and joking around while wondering why the game you came to see is not going on. However, like rtbt said, money is the key factor in this. Therefore, as much as I hate this, likely nothing will be done.

[DanEboyParticipant]

rtbt, I am not disagreeing with you. I just don’t think it will ever change. If anything, there are some suits sitting in a room trying to find a way to get more ad time involved as we type.

In the words of the Wu, C.R.E.A.M. haha

[JNixonParticipant]

Da1pot was right on the money with what he said about Georgetown. They play 7 guys at most when I watch them play, and those TV timeouts do indirectly help them out. Not just them, but any team that has a low number of rotation players that get TV timeouts are aided.

[rtbtParticipant]

I knew you weren’t disagreeing, but since you brought it up, I decided to throw in the Superbowl comparison. Unfortunately I agree with you in that it will probably never change.

Having said that, I used the word “probably” because I believe that 4 TV timeouts per half are so bad for the game that if both the networks and the NCAA get enough complaints, they just might scale back to three timeouts per half. That would make me and others feel much better about the game we love.

I’m guessing that even the coaches don’t like it because there’s no more continuity to a game.

[rtbtParticipant]

I hope all of you enjoyed watching the never ending series of commercials in last night’s games.

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