BMatt’s Monday musings

AUBURN | I love the NCAA Tournament.

I would even make the argument to eliminate the First Four and just return it to a 64-team tournament.

But it’s going in the opposite direction and if the national pundits are right, it’ll be expanding soon.

It’s the new Bad Boys of college athletics — the SEC and Big Ten — that are pushing it in that direction.

Commissioners Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti will preside over 16- and 18-team conferences respectively starting in July and they want to make certain that the major postseason tournaments are stacked with their teams.

Sankey has brought up several times Ole Miss winning the 2022 College World Series after being the last team in the tournament.

He and Petitti want to see more opportunities for teams that finish in the middle of the pack of the power conferences.

This year’s March Madness produced another in N.C. State, which advanced to the Final Four after finishing 10th in the ACC with a 9-11 league record.

Of course, the Wolfpack had to earn it the old fashioned way winning five games in five days at the ACC Tournament to qualify.

Sankey and Petitti want more guarantees and less madness.

The pair already flexed their muscles in negotiating the new six-year T.V. deal with ESPN for the College Football Playoff starting in 2026.

That deal gives both the SEC and Big Ten a 29 percent share of the CFP revenue distribution. The ACC will get 17.1 percent and the Big 12 14.7.

The strong get stronger and the weak, well, it’s no coincidence that Florida State and now Clemson are both suing the ACC to leave that conference.

It’s the conferences that control the CFP and it’s the NCAA that controls the rest of the postseasons in college athletics — for now.

In this era of sudden and significant changes in college athletics, the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament and it’s $1.3 billion in revenue is what Sankey and Petitti could set their sights on next.

While most of college athletics’ punditry is wholly against the idea of NCAA Tournament expansion or the Bad Boys of the SEC and Big Ten running the show, I’ve got mixed feelings.

First of all, let’s not forget it’s the arrogant, myopic and utter incompetence of the leadership of the NCAA that have led to the complete meltdown of the amateur model, the Wild West of the NIL era and unlimited transfers.

The NCAA fought those battles in court, lost badly and had no plan in place to deal with the outcome. The NCAA and Power 4 conferences are now facing up to $10 billion in damages from the House, Hubbard and Carter cases.

I repeat — total and complete incompetence.

So while I don’t like the idea of a bigger and longer NCAA Men’s Tournament stuffed with a bunch of average Power 4 teams, I’m not sure I trust the NCAA to get it right either.

I just want it to stay the same, even though I know change is inevitable. Some of the changes in college athletics have been a long time coming and are much needed.

Others, not so much.

Whoever’s in charge of the NCAA Tournament five years from now needs to remember what makes it special — the upsets, the underdogs, the drama, and the pace and excitement of so many games packed into a short period of time.

It’s more than a championship tournament. It’s become a cultural event in the U.S. It’s special, and any changes to it need to be made with extreme care.

***

In today’s musical journey, we go back 16 years to the day a bait-and-switch meme that involves a prominent 1980’s artist hits the mainstream. On April 1, 2008, YouTube tricks users into clicking links that lead to the video of Rick Astley’s 1987 hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up,” as an April Fool’s joke. Called Rickrolling, the meme had its origins on the website, 4chan. In 2006, a 4chan site moderator made a word filter that changed the word “egg” to duck,” which earned the name Duckroll along with a picture of a duck on wheels. In March of 2007, a user on 4chan posted what he called a link to the trailer for the video game, Grand Theft Auto 4, which actually led to Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” and Rickrolling was born. There was separate incident in 2006 when a caller to a sports radio station in Michigan played “Never Gonna Give You Up” instead of speaking with the hosts. The Rickrolling meme took off after 2008 and the video now has more than 1.5 billion views. After initially downplaying his newfound popularity, Astley popped out of a float at the 2008 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to perform the song.

Richard Paul Astley was born in 1966 in Lancashire, England. He began singing in his church choir at age 10 and began playing drums in several bands with his friends in grade school. After leaving school at the age of 16, Astley played in several bands including FBI, which grew in popularity and drew interest from an RCA Records producer in 1985. His first single, 1987’s “When You Gonna” became a surprise hit in the UK and led to the release of “Never Gonna Give You Up,” which topped the charts in 24 countries including the Billboard 100 in the U.S. and won a BRIT Award for the Best British Single. His debut album, Whenever You Need Somebody, was released in late 1987 and included another No. 1 hit on the Billboard 100 in 1988’s “Together Forever.” Astley released a second album in 1989, which included the top 10 hit, “She Wants to Dance with Me,” but his popularity quickly waned and he pivoted from pop to soul and adult contemporary music in 1990. He had a top 10 hit with “Cry For Help” in 1991 but retired in 1993 to spend more time with his family. He returned about a decade later and has remained active since producing nine albums and touring. He has sold more than 40 million records worldwide.