The NCAA Should Recreate WrestleMania Week with the Final Four

We need the NCAA to stop making bad decisions while treating women’s basketball like men’s basketball.

Thankfully, I have an idea, born out of the NCAA’s potentially bad ideas.

In the wake of the COVID-era tournaments, there has been talk the NCAA may move the entire Sweet 16 to one site to create a true basketball convention by giving them a week-plus worth of men’s tournament games at one site.

It’s a terrible, terrible idea.

It goes hand-in-hand with the awful notion that the NCAA may actually keep Sweet 16 games on the weekends to give each game an exclusive TV window. It’s another terrible, terrible idea and let’s hope the record-low ratings for Elite Eight games on Monday and Tuesday nights ends those plans.

But still, there’s something intriguing about the NCAA planning a basketball festival, because I’ve seen an idea like that work in pro wrestling.

WrestleMania over the past decade has become much more than just one big event. WWE has successfully turned WrestleMania into the centerpiece of a week’s worth of shows across a city culminating in a big event held in a Dome. Sound familiar?

Furthermore, WrestleMania is the focal point of the pro wrestling calendar, as many independent and smaller promotions schedule shows in the WrestleMania city as well, to sell more tickets to a crazed bunch of wrestling fans.

The NCAA could not only recreate this around the Final Four, but it could breathe new life into college basketball as a sport by bringing in the women’s game.

Why is the women’s Final Four held on the same weekend in a different city anyway? I’ve long argued the women’s tournament should be pushed back to avoid competing with the men’s tournament. In lieu of that, why not combine the two?

Especially in a day and age where there are fewer media outlets and reporters covering the sport, why not give those covering the sport access to all of the best games without having to choose?

In doing so, the NCAA could also provide a tremendous boost to its other tournament – the NIT – that has been desperately chasing relevancy and attention for decades now. With the appeal of playing in Madison Square Garden diminished by the vast number of college games played there in November and December of a normal year, why not bring the NIT into the fold?

Why stop there? In Atlanta for the 75th anniversary in 2013, the NCAA brought the lower divisions into the host city for added exposure. Why not do that every year? Give hoop fanatics a BasketballMania that runs for a full week, giving them dozens of games to check out during the week, to say nothing of the periphery events that could be hosted by sponsors and shoe companies during the week.

Here’s the events that could be brought into a host city:

• Men’s Final Four
• Women’s Final Four
• Men’s NIT
• Women’s NIT
• 3-Point & Slam-Dunk Contest
• All-Star Game
• D2 Men’s Final Four
• D2 Women’s Final Four

That sounds like a lot because it would be a lot and that’s the point. The NCAA would need three venues to make the week possible, and every Final Four city has all of them:

• The Dome – Traditional Final Four site
• Arena A – Pro arena in the city
• Arena B – College arena in the city

Let’s see what that would look in practice based on the next two cities hosting:

2022 – New Orleans

• The Dome: Superdome
• Arena A: Smoothie King Center (Pelicans’ home court)
• Arena B: Devlin Fieldhouse (Tulane’s home court)

2023 – Houston

• The Dome: Reliant Stadium
• Arena A: Toyota Center (Rockets’ home court)
• Arena B: Fertitta Center (Houston’s home court)

Now let’s play out what a schedule would look like, based upon the events’ current TV partners and a logical schedule from Tuesday through Monday. Yes, the NCAA could develop a full week of games for hoop lovers. A non-stop orgy of basketball that would be appealing to fans and also let media in town potentially cover every single game. Exposure is good!

Tuesday:

• Arena A: Men’s NIT Semifinals 7pm & 930pm (ESPN)

Wednesday:

• Arena B: D2 Men’s Final Four 2pm & 430pm (CBS Sports Network)
• Arena A: All-Star Game: 7pm (TBS)
• Arena A: 3-Point & Slam-Dunk Content: 9pm (ESPN)

Thursday

• Arena B: D2 Women’s Final Four 2pm & 430pm (CBS Sports Network)
• Arena A: Men’s NIT Final: 8pm (ESPN)

Friday:

• Arena B: Women’s NIT Semifinals: 2pm & 430pm (CBS Sports Network)
• Arena A: Women’s Final Four: 7pm & 930pm (ESPN)

Saturday

• Arena B: D2 Men’s Title Game: 2pm (CBS)
• The Dome: Men’s Final Four: 630pm & 9pm (CBS or TBS)

Sunday:

• Arena B: D2 Women’s Title Game: 1pm (CBS)
• Arena A: Women’s Title Game: 6pm (ESPN)

Monday

• Arena B: Women’s NIT Final: 3pm (CBS Sports Network)
• The Dome: Men’s Title Game: 9pm (CBS or TBS)

Think about all the advantages that would come from this.

More people would watch the NIT and Division 2 games.

The women’s Final Four would get a tremendous boost from having more media in attendance and would finally get treated as an equal to the men’s tournament.

The men’s Final Four becomes even bigger as the centerpiece of the week. Sponsors, schools, and fans get a full week where it can gather every week as the definitive biggest week of the year.

Networks get more content during a week where people are obsessed with basketball, and can set up shop with personnel and sets in one place all week – SportsCenter would be there all week.

What is the downside to something like this? I’ve been playing this around in my head for weeks and frankly, I don’t see one.

It only won’t happen because the NCAA hates good ideas.

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