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Athlon Sports
  • 4/4/2025
why has March Madness been so chalky this year?
Transcript
00:00This weekend of March Madness was super chalky, but is this what the future of the NCAA tournament
00:04is going to look like? For the second year in a row, no true mid-major team has made it to the
00:08second weekend of the tournament. Only one double-digit seeded team has made it, and that's
00:12John Calperry's Arkansas. Far from a true underdog story. We've heard all of the complaints about
00:17conference realignment and NIL's effect on college football, but it looks like we're starting to see
00:21the side effects of it in March Madness. This is the first time in tournament history that only
00:25major conference teams will be playing in the Sweet 16. In fact, seven of the 16 teams left
00:30are all from one conference. While we have seen chalky tournaments before, in 2007 the highest
00:35seed to make it to the Sweet 16 was a seven-seeded UNLV. This could be indicative of bigger problems.
00:41It used to be that many underdog mid-major teams would be comprised of juniors and seniors
00:45who have played together for multiple seasons, while the elite schools were mostly freshmen and
00:49one-and-dones. But now those players are transferring out after one good season to
00:53get a better opportunity at a bigger school. Hopefully in the future these smaller schools
00:58can help figure out how to use NIL to level the playing field. But until then,
01:01we may be seeing some chalky NCAA tournaments.

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