"NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Reflects Questionable Values"

This year’s NCAA College Men’s Basketball Tournament emphasizes the value of winning at any cost. In most college basketball programs "winning is everything" because it means more money for the individual school. In fact, it may not be good for the overall outcome of the athlete in life. This fact is brought to the forefront by the plethora of teams featuring athletes who came to them through the transfer portal. Participants are no longer student-athletes, but those who seek their own fame and fortune as they understand it-- at an age when male brains are not fully developed. Colleges and universities sell out to their capitalistic values as they surrender any concern for the value of each person and their future.

At the same time, some schools seem to reflect a balance between receiving a college education for the future and winning. The contrast in values by programs was made clear by two of the “losers” in the recent tournament. First, Purdue was upset by Fairleigh Dickinson, a small school out east whose several players came in through the portal. In responding to questions about the collapse, Purdue coach Matt Painter said that he was still basing his program on “doing things the right way.” Like many other coaches “the right way” means bringing in his players as a unit, developing them as individuals and as a team, while valuing their academic education. Although “the right way” might lead to an upset loss, one wonders how his student-athletes will fare in twenty to twenty-five years contrasted to those who transfer one or two times in their college careers. Certainly, the transitions required by the academic stops and re-starts (which are said to lose three months of educational progress each time) will put each of the student-athletes who go through the transfer portal at risk for their future. Even if each one of these athletes sees some success in their college career, their future vocation as a player in a professional league is rare. Although through the NIL policy their branding may net some profits for themselves in college, one wonders whether it is even a good economic move to follow the portal.

The other loser that reflects the negative capitalistic quality of men’s college basketball today is North Carolina’s decision not to play in the NIT, the National Invitational Tournament. The decision was, I understand, largely made by taking a poll of the players. Perhaps playing in this secondary tournament was below a team whose make-up surprisingly was similar to last year’s team that made it to the NCAA finals. Maybe, paradoxically, their failure to put together a good enough resume to make the field of 68 (in the opinion of the NCAA tournament committee) was due to a lack of picking up players through the transfer portal. Perhaps participation in the post-season would have led to growth in the Tar Heels as student-athletes, at least to growth in humility and conviction that the game is played to the best of our ability, win or lose. As it stands, the reliance on youth or young adults to make a decision that might lead to maturity and growth as a team displays a lack of leadership on the team’s part. At the same time their was little "capital" value in playing in the NIT.

NCAA College Basketball reflects the rest of our society.Most of the time we concentrate on the betting and other negative ethical values reflected surrounding the event. Now, as the tipoff comes to the second weekend, I suggest that the way in which recent changes have reflected which players participate on each team belies an imbalance in our nurturing of youth and young adults. As parents and grandparents we hope that a university education will help to grow values and build leaders for the future. Certainly the use of the transfer portal to “win at any cost,” even of a college education puts an autofocus on our failure as a society to curb our appetites and to make choices that our balanced and true to what is best for our present and future. Our very society depends upon maintaining this delicate balance.