O’Donnell: Moving money matters during March Madness
A MARCH WITH THE POTENTIAL to be immersed in the highest degree of money madness ever is officially underway.
Within 120 hours, starting fields of 68 in both the NCAA men's and women's tournaments will be pared to a pair of Sweet Sixteens.
But the Sweets have never been as loaded with as many sweeteners.
The fact is, never before has as much above-board legal tender been in play to influence outcomes.
The men's side gets most of that fluid lucre. The women's game will be trying to sustain both the level of mainstream interest and record TV ratings that accompanied the crescendo of the Caitlin Clark collegiate era last spring.
FOR PURPOSES OF SIMPLIFICATION, two clarifying definitions:
--- Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) money — “unrestricted payment for services”; and,
--- Transfer portal — “complete, no-look-back free agency.”
The semantics are fun. But the realities are complex. With the 2025-26 transfer portal yawning, that means every single player gliding across HD screens in the next three weeks is showcasing her or his basketball wares for sale to the highest bidder.
ALLEGIANCE TO OL' HAPPY QUAD U. means next to nothing for most.
The rules and transparencies involving all movement and potential tournament bonuses remain in a state of evolution. But as Randy Newman sang all those “Short People” ago, a certainty is:
“It's money that matters.”
SOME POWER BOOSTERS BEHIND marquee programs are already quite public, like Kentucky Derby horse owners dying to get down to the winner's circle at Churchill Downs.
Phil Knight and all his Nike money have long been on board at Oregon. Tilman Fertitta of casinos and other wealth streams is all in on Houston and desperado head coach Kelvin Sampson.
VitaminWater founder Mike Repole is the St. John's alum who has been pumping the latest remarkable resurrection of close chum Rick Pitino.
(Repole's stay at the NYC university coincided with Lou Carnesecca's 1985 Final Four outfit featuring Chris Mullin, Walter Berry and Bill Wennington, the future Chicago Bull. Love him or not, Pitino and his victory moment on Fox Saturday night, following the Red Storm's Big East tournament championship at frenzied Madison Square Garden, was electric basketball theater.)
IT ALL NOW FLOWS INTO two tournaments that benefit from their record books and the general public's perception of fair structure.
Jay Wright of CBS — who knows a thing or two about winning the big enchilada — went way out on a limb Sunday night and predicted a Final Four of Auburn, Duke, Houston and St. John's.
That would be a pat hand with three No. 1 seeds (Auburn-South, Duke-East and Houston-Midwest) and St. John's, a No. 2 in the West.
He stopped short of saying some intriguing vacation spots in the United States include: Kauai, Carmel, Aspen in winter and Martha's Vineyard.
BUT CATFISH ARE JUMPIN' and NCAA tournament balls are bouncing.
The segment of the American viewing public into those things now faces its most intense TV weekend since Super Bowl 59 beginning Thursday night.
In the end, on both sides — men's and women's — someone will win.
And right after that achingly enduring “One Shining Moment” plays, please cue “Change Partners.”
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WITH A LITTLE MORE HONESTY, Fox Sports might have completely pantsed the Cubs and their Chicago broadcast outlets in competing coverages of the 4-1 win by the Dodgers in the season-opening game of the Tokyo Series Tuesday.
With a rooster's start in the Midwest (5:10 a.m.; 7:10 p.m. Tokyo time), Jason Benetti and A.J. Pierzynski sounded crisp, energized and “national” in their call on Fox's main network.
The only problem was Benetti and Pierzynski weren't at the Tokyo Dome. They were more than 6,500 miles away, announcing off video feeds back in the U.S.A.
Cubs TV at least sent Alex Cohen and Jim Deshaies to Japan. While the result might have been totally “Marquee Sports Network” — parochial and paint-by-numbers — at least they were on-site.
(The Wigglies' offense didn't help any broadcast crew by getting the last of its 3 hits in the third inning — an infield single by Ian Happ.)
WSCR-AM (670) AND THE RICKETTS FAMILY SINGERS plumbed cost-effective depths like Fox. Pat Hughes, Ron Coomer and Zach Zaidman woke up echoes of the pandemic by calling the game off TV monitors at Wrigley Field. That was sure to excite the predawn Starbucks masses at Addison and Clark.
Adam Amin replaces Benetti for Wednesday's concluding Game 2. Fox moves that contest to FS1, clearing the way for the small group of remote-challenged viewers who accidentally stumble into morning newscasts on Chicago's very third-tier Channel 32.
Out of any line of fire was Jon “Boog” Sciambi. He got a pass on the long March journey for Marquee because of college basketball broadcast commitments.
Full disclosure would go a long way for the stay-at-homes at Fox.
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.