Could GOP + bracketology = 1600?
Is it just me or are you sick and tired of watching the ups and downs of the Republican presidential race?
Well, here’s a quick, simple and easy way to sort out the mess the three-headed monster Romney-Santorum-Gingrich has become:
Bracketology.
Anyone with a TV has seen President Obama lefty in his picks for a national basketball champion.
So, here’s the plan: Have Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich complete their own brackets. The candidate that comes closest to beating Obama has the best shot at beating him in November, so he wins the GOP nomination.
As ESPN has proven, political bracketology is very TV-friendly, so it’s a no-brainer for someone like Ted Turner to make a buck or two on the Republican version.
If nothing else, bracketology should be able to eliminate Gingrich … finally.
CBS, et al, must go
Speaking of the tournament, have you been playing CBS-TV’s new game? It’s called Find That Game. It’s simple to play. All you need is a remote control for the TV. Just keep clicking until you find the game you want to watch.
This is a relatively new rant for me, but it’s a slight variation of one of my greatest and longest-running rants.
It goes all the way back to the days when ESPN presented the first two days of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Thursdays and Fridays back then were jam-packed with buzzer-beaters and upsets.
When CBS took over the tournament, we were forced to watch the game CBS told us we were going to watch.
Whereas ESPN treated the tournament as a show unto itself, CBS tried (and failed) to make each game its own show.
Of course, CBS got the tournament the American way: It outspend the sports network for the rights, then jacked up the advertising rates.
Along the way, CBS bumped Oprah Winfrey all the way to ABC. She was so “devastated,” she created her own network.
I’m not naive enough to think ESPN could ever get the tournament back where it belongs (last time I checked, the “S” still stood for “Sports”). But I firmly believe any network could do a better job of televising the tournament than CBS.
Once CBS realized the tournament was too big for one network to televise, it started selling off pieces to Turner-owned TBS and TNT and sold another piece to TruTV.
That’s where the new game comes into play. Click away. If you’re really lucky, you might just find the game you want to watch.
I used to rant against the NCAA for selling its soul (the tournament is the NCAA’s most television-friendly product) to the highest bidder. I used to beg the NCAA to give it back to ESPN, the professionals of sports broadcasting, even if it meant less money for the NCAA.
I know now that such a scenario is as unlikely as a 16 seed winning the tournament.
So, here’s my new rant: I’m hoping Oprah outbids CBS and surrenders a couple of Thursdays, Fridays and weekends in March so college basketball fans can watch the games they want to watch.
Shameless plugs
It took 30 minutes of airtime last Thursday for CBS to get to its first shameless plug of its coverage of the Masters golf tournament.
The basketball game (Colorado State vs. Murray State) hadn’t reached the 10-minute mark of the first half yet.
Had to take care of the paying customers first, I guess.
Rest assured, by the end of the tournament, you’ll have seen hundreds of plugs for the golf tournament.