A spoof: The future of college basketball

It is March 12, 2022 and the NCAA Selection Show is set to air on CBS.

There is a great deal of speculation about who the top seeds will be, since 91 NCAA Division I schools are currently on suspended or on probation.

The schools in contention for the top seeds are Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Amherst, Williams and Trinity in Hartford, Conn.

Yale is deemed by many to be the top overall No. 1 seed, based upon a gaudy 28-3 record and wins over Louisville State College, St. Olaf and Pepperdine.

The Elis are led by versatile freshman Quincy Jones, son of the legendary Yale coach James Jones. Jones finished his maiden season with a 19.1 points and 5.1 assists per game.

Amherst went on a stunning 16-game winning streak in January and February, with key wins over Bates and Brown, finishing the season with 10 consecutive narrow wins. As many know, the regional sites are New Haven, Providence, Hartford and Boston, with the Final Four being played in New York City at Columbia’s Levien Gymnasium.

Many previous national powers are on the outside looking in. Louisville will next be eligible for NCAA play in 2030, UNC in 2028, and Miami in 2026. All three will be permitted to have only three scholarship players.

The head of the NCAA Selection Committee, former Harvard coach Peter Roby, is optimistic that this year’s tourney will be a success, despite the fact that only 3,211 seats have been sold for the Final Four to date.

CBS is about to go on air and Ringer TV, the successor to ESPN, will start its Selection Sunday recap directly after the CBS show ends. ESPN was disbanded in 2021 because of a declining subscriber base and crippling broadcasting rights fees.