Everybody loves March Madness and the NCAA Tournament, except for Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy. A legendary sportswriter, Shaughnessy was honored with the career excellence award from the Baseball Writers Association of America, yet he has never embraced change in sports and often takes a contrarian view.
As March Madness approaches, Shaughnessy took to the Globe to deliver a scathing critique of how the sanctity of the sport has been compromised by NIL and the transfer portal. He expresses disdain for the tournament, declaring:
No thanks, Basketball America. I’ll be sitting this one out. I’m not sure I’d watch the Monday, April 7 men’s championship game if they played it in my driveway. Seriously. The NCAA men’s basketball tournament used to be great, but I have a hard time understanding how folks invest dollars and emotions in today’s farce that has almost nothing to do with colleges and universities.
Shaughnessy includes criticisms from Leo Papile, a former personnel director with the Boston Celtics, echoing sentiments from an era where such views were more common. Additionally, fans of generational clashes were not disappointed with a Bob Cousy mention dedicated to Chris Russo along with a reference to Phil Mushnick from the New York Post, whose outdated takes on college athletics are hardly worth a link.
I’m not expecting a return to Holy Cross winning the 1947 NCAA championship with freshman Bob Cousy and a roster of legitimate student-athletes (probably Classics majors) who had no home court and practiced in a surplus naval airplane hangar atop little Mount Saint James in Worcester. I’m not asking for “Big Daddy D” Lattin and four little-known Black teammates from Texas Western beating Adolph Rupp, Pat Riley, and Kentucky in 1966, or Brad Stevens having Butler running the picket fence against Duke in the 2010 final. Clearly, cash and cheating long ago corrupted the sweet amateur status of college basketball, and it’s been decades since most of the players on the court had real connection to the schools represented on their jerseys.
According to Shaughnessy, the transfer portal and NIL are responsible for the NCAA Tournament’s decline, pointing to St. John’s guard Deivon Smith, who has switched schools multiple times throughout his college career. He laments:
But as we start the 2025 men’s tournament, it’s also clear that TV money, NIL money, and the transfer portal have broken a once-great product and frayed lingering threads that once connected the athletes to the schools they represent. Players unhappy with their compensation or playing time rush to transfer, leading to annual turnover in big-time men’s basketball rosters. Big-time NCAA men’s basketball has become professional basketball without the rules that govern the NBA.
Take a look at St. John’s guard Deivon Smith. He’s 23 years old, and this is his fourth NCAA Division 1 school. He’s moved from Mississippi State (2020-21) to Georgia Tech (2021-22 and 2022-23) to Utah, and finally landed at St. John’s with Pitino. He’s played five full college seasons, a total of 137 games!
Shaughnessy notes how coaches like Tony Bennett and Jay Wright have left college basketball due to the demands of the new era. He also references Rick Pitino at St. John’s and John Calipari at Arkansas as examples of coaches who previously skirted NCAA rules but now operate above board. Yet, he fails to acknowledge that players now possess similar freedoms, chasing better paydays and opportunities just as coaches have traditionally done. Was it not a disruption of college athletics when Pitino moved from Boston to Providence and then to Kentucky? Or when Calipari shifted from UMass to Memphis and onward?
Even with these changes, the NCAA Tournament continues to grow in popularity, which is a boon considering Dan Shaughnessy’s driveway might not hold all those eager fans. Last year, the tournament achieved record viewership numbers in the first weekend of March Madness, and over 12 million viewers tuned in for the Final Four, even with it airing on cable.
In closing, Shaughnessy laments, “It’s 2025 and the NCAA Tournament is professional basketball.” Ironically, that sentiment appears to resonate with few beyond him and perhaps Phil Mushnick.
