University of Maryland joining Big Ten making today Black Monday

With the University of Maryland Joining the Big Ten (currently an ACC member) and Rutgers - a founding member of the Big East conference - set to follow this east coast migration to the Big Ten, the most academically prestigious NCAA conference (outside of the Ivy League schools) will have 14 members and be on par in terms of membership with the SEC. But to think that this is all about academics is insane. It's all about the next big NCAA football broadcast deal for the Big Ten.

The Big Ten's football games are currently aired on ABC, ESPN and the conference's own Big Ten Network which is the conference's true cash cow and bringing in a couple of east coast schools and getting potentially millions of homes into the Big Ten Network fold means millions of additional dollars per year from cable subscribers who may or may not care about receiving the Big Ten Network but will pay for it anyhow as a part of their expanded basic cable package.

The other part of this addition to the Big Ten is that is a subtraction of schools from other NCAA athletic conferences -- this time the ACC and the Big East. This round of NCAA conference alignment -- with the Big Ten again leading the charge as they did two years ago in picking up the University of Nebraska from what seemed a certain-to-crumble Big 12 conference -- will more than likely be the end-game that sports rubes have had wet dreams about for years.

With the ACC losing Maryland, they'll likely pick up the University of Connecticut from the certain-to-collapse Big East who will go member shopping for anyone desperate enough to sidle up alongside the likes of Temple, the University of Central Florida and the Middle-Bronx College of Culinary Arts (not an actual college that I know of). This move, too, will make the ACC look shaky and have other conferences -- mainly the Big 12 who currently has ten member universities and the greedy SEC who stands at 14 member universities -- looking to pick off an ACC member or two who would welcome the greener pastures of the Big 12 or SEC despite the hefty $50 million exit fee from the ACC.

The Big Ten expansion to 14 schools will also make the Pac 12 (which appropriately has 12 member universities in western states as far east as Colorado) look towards Texas, Texas Tech, the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University as they want ot hit the somehow magical number of sixteen members first for bragging rights, if nothing else.

The NCAA conference landscape will again change entirely all for the almighty television dollars from ESPN, Fox and ultimately from the pockets of cable television subscribers who seem ready to consume anything shown to them on their charged-to-their-credit-card 70" LED HDTV set they picked up on Black Friday/Thursday after waiting in line outside of Walmart for 8 hours rather that socialize with their extended family who they see once each year.

Let's not look ahead to Black Friday but instead remember today -- Monday, November 19, 2012 -- as Black Monday, the day which truly showed us the college athletics isn't about competition on the field, court or ice but instead that it's about competition for cable subscribers and advertising dollars.

Saturday's March Madness TV Schedule

Saturday brings what is technically the third round of March Madness but to a codgery purist like me it's still just the second round and finally TruTV is out of the mix.

March 19
Noon Kentucky vs. West Virginia CBS
2:30 p.m. Florida vs. UCLA CBS
5 p.m. Morehead State vs. Richmond CBS
6 p.m. Temple vs. San Diego State TNT
7 p.m. Pitt vs. Butler TBS
7:45 p.m. BYU vs. Gonzaga CBS
8:30 p.m. Wisconsin vs. Kansas State TNT
9:30 p.m. Connecticut vs. Cincinnati TBS

Friday's March Madness TV Schedule

March Madness keeps rolling and while the NCAA is calling it the second round, it's still the first round in my dark, cold soul.

March 18 (all times Eastern)
Noon Oakland vs. Texas CBS
12:30 p.m. Tennessee vs. Michigan truTV
1:30 p.m. Akron vs. Notre Dame TBS
2 p.m. Villanova vs. George Mason TNT
2:30 p.m. Memphis vs. Arizona CBS
3 p.m. Hampton vs. Duke truTV
4 p.m. Florida State vs. Texas A&M TBS
4:30 p.m. Texas-San Antonio vs. Ohio State TNT
6:45 p.m. Boston University vs. Kansas TBS
7 p.m. Long Island vs. North Carolina CBS
7:15 p.m St Peter's vs. Purdue TNT
7:15 p.m. Marquette vs. Xavier truTV
9:15 p.m. Illinois vs. UNLV TBS
9:30 p.m. Georgia vs. Washington CBS
9:45 p.m. Virginia Commonwealth vs. Georgetown TNT
9:55 p.m. Indiana State vs. Syracuse truTV

Thursday's March Madness TV Schedule

Oh, sure. The NCAA's March Madness starts today but with four networks slicing up coverage of the games, who actually knows what game is playing when and on which network? Behold: Thursday's March Madness TV schedule. (All times Eastern)

AFTERNOON GAMES

12:15: West Virginia vs. Clemson (CBS)

12:40: Butler vs. Old Dominion (truTV)

1:40: Louisville vs. Morehead State (TBS)

2:10: Temple vs. Penn State (TNT)

2:45: Kentucky vs. Princeton (CBS)

3:10: Pittsburgh vs. UNC Asheville (truTV)

4:10: Vanderbilt vs. Richmond (TBS)

4:40: San Diego State vs. Northern Colorado (TNT)

EVENING GAMES

6:50: Florida vs. UC Santa Barbara (TBS)

7:15: BYU vs. Wofford (CBS)

7:20: Connecticut vs. Bucknell (TNT)

7:27: Wisconsin vs. Belmont (truTV)

9:20: UCLA vs. Michigan State (TBS)

9:45: St. John’s vs. Gonzaga (CBS)

9:50: Cincinnati vs. Missouri (TNT)

9:57: Kansas State vs. Utah State (truTV)

March Madness is dead to me

March Madness is something akin to watching the birth of a unicorn. It's magical. It's priceless. Except for the fact that it heppens every year it's just like a unicorn's birth. Watching that unicorn taking its first breath is like watching a 15 seed eek out a victory against the second seeded team in the first round. The coverage turns from what should have been the most compelling game to the little game nobody cared about. 15 seed Western Podunk A&M Tech is beating Duke and it's magical. This is the kind of thing that gets remembered. Except that this year that game won't be on the national stage.

Chances are that the 2-15 game in the first round will land on Tru TV. For the previous 116 years, NCAA March Madness has been televised on CBS. The games all shared some time as during lulls in the game you were seeing you'd be treated to live look-ins of other games taking place from other regions around the country. Well, the NCAA, in the name of greed, has gone and fucked that up. No longer does CBS broadcast each and every game -- now TNT, TBS and Tru TV have a piece of the pie. A piece of the pie that CBS should rightfully have. It would be like the Super Bowl being held in May. It would be like moving Christmas to the third Friday in March. It's just wrong.

The 64 team field is even a thing of the past. Oh, sure, for the past few years there has been a play-in game between two teams that nobody gave a shit about to secure the 16th seed in one region but in all of the NCAA's wisdom, they felt the need to expand upon that and create a sort of warm-up round prior to the Madness. The First Four now features FOUR play-in games where eight teams nobody gives a damn about will scramble for the chance to get their asses handed to them by teams from schools people have actually heard of. So tuen in the Tru TV Tuesday and Wednesday night starting at 5:30 PM CT to see Kibbles & Bits Polytechnic, Jerry Fallwell University of Hatespeech and six other schools duke it out on a cable channel that most people don't even know where to find on their TVs.

Way to go NCAA. You went and fucked up what was already too much of a good thing with too much more of a bad thing. You are dead to me March Madness.

Sure, I'm still playing five March Madness brackets but that just how hypocrisy works.