Why you shouldn't watch this year's NCAA Tournament

There are lots of reasons to watch this year’s NCAA Tournament, no question. However, there are also some good reasons not to watch the games. Looking for a few good excuses to give your friends when they accuse you of being a no-fun spoil sport when it comes to brackets? Look no further. Here are some legitimate arguments why you should not watch this year’s NCAA Tournament.

The players still aren’t getting paid 

Ah yes, this inconvenient truth rears its ugly head yet again. In 2010, CBS and Turner Sports paid the NCAA $10.8 billion for March Madness broadcast rights. That agreement was set to expire in 2024. In 2016, the agreement was extended through 2032 to the tune of another $8.8 billion. For those of you scoring at home, that’s just shy of $20 billion, and that’s just the broadcast rights. On a yearly basis, the rights fees, advertising, merchandising, corporate partnerships, ticket sales and other revenue streams add up to around a billion dollars. The players get gift bags, I’m assuming. I’m sure they’re nice.

The officiating is often bad

This was on display during the SEC Tournament when, in the waning seconds of Auburn and Florida’s semifinal matchup, a seemingly obvious foul on Auburn was ignored, and the Tigers held on to win, 65-62. Had the foul been called, Florida would have received three foul shots, and with it, a chance to tie the game. Instead, the refs swallowed their whistles for reasons unknown. Some fans complain about “star calls” in the NBA, but possible preferential treatment is better than gross incompetence any day of the week. You can bet that at least a few games in the tournament will feature questionable officiating.

The basketball isn’t always great either

Ideally, March Madness is chock full of buzzer-beaters, incredible drama and frozen moments that stay with us forever. Every game is, say, just like Villanova’s title game thriller over North Carolina from 2016. In reality, many of the games are stinkers, many of the lower-seeded teams are cannon fodder and many of the early-round games in particular feature clank after clank after clank. You may not like the NBA style, although it has gotten infinitely better in the last decade or so, but there’s no denying that the skill level is on another planet in the pros. Unfortunately when you actually start paying attention to it, the relative dearth of talent in the college game becomes readily apparent.

Duke has a good chance to win it all

You don’t want to read this, but it’s true. The Blue Devils have three lottery picks in their starting five, and if Cam Reddish can find his range more consistently, Mike Krzyzewski’s team will be nearly impossible to stop. Zion Williamson is a dominant force, R.J. Barrett might actually be the best pro prospect of the trio, and between the three of them, they represent a degree of high-end talent no one else in the tournament can match. This edition of the Dukies isn’t nearly as annoying as past ones, probably because the fake hustle is at a minimum and the talent is spectacular. It’s hard to get too angry about a team of overwhelmingly talented players, but still, it's Duke. If you would normally watch this team assuming an upset was in the offing, maybe table that idea this year.

Upsets aren’t always buzzer-beaters

When you think of the upsets that define the tournament, your mind’s eye probably conjures up a senior guard for a small school going off for 40 points and hitting a contested three-pointer at the horn for a one-point victory. Doesn’t always happen that way. In fact, many upsets end up being that in name only, as underseeded mid-majors trample Power 5 schools that don’t really belong. If that makes you angry about the flawed nature of the selection process more than anything else, you might want to watch bowling instead.

­­­­­­That bracket obsessive in your office can get pretty annoying

"Please enter my bracket." "You love brackets, right? I’m running a pool this year." "Are you sure you don’t want to join my bracket pool? It usually has tons of entrants — big top prize!" The overzealous emails, text messages, office bulletin board postings and assorted other ways that people harangue you about who you picked and why, merely so they can tell you which teams they picked and why those teams are actually going to win, are good reasons to not watch the games purely out of spite.