Columnist Ron Kantowski: Big changes on tap in college hoops

Thursday, April 6, 2000 | 10:31 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's column appears Thursday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

One of the talk radio guys went overboard Wednesday when he said all-time low television ratings for Monday's NCAA title game signalled the beginning of the end of "college basketball as we know it."

As if that were a bad thing.

I agree that some big changes may be on tap. I would disagree that flagging TV ratings should be considered the quintessential warning shot.

First off, the TV ratings are relative. With the advent of cable and satellite television and the personal computer, the home viewer today has more options for his viewing pleasure.

When I was a kid in the late 1960s, about the only televised sports were the NBC Game of the Week and whatever Big Ten game they sent Bill Fleming to. If you had rabbit ears, you might be able to pull in a UHF signal from Chicago and an occasional pro wrestling match. Or the White Sox, who didn't get much respect even then.

Now, as Bruce Springsteen says, there are 57 channels (more like 357), and nothin's on. The presence of the dish and hair-trigger remote control notwithstanding, Monday's 14.1 overnight rating for Michigan State-Florida was higher than any other thing on the tube last week that didn't feature Regis Philbin, some grocery clerk from Iowa and a million bucks.

That said, if I were Sean McManus at CBS Sports or whichever of his minions negotiated the new bazillion-dollar TV contract with the NCAA, maybe I'm second-guessing myself today. But only a little. The NCAA men's basketball tournament is a lot like the Kentucky Derby or the Indy 500. You may not know the players, but you generally make it a point to tune in.

When you do, it may look an awful lot like the junior college tournament from Hutchison, Kan. Only the arena will be larger and the coaches (unless Temple is playing) will be dressed nicer.

With the majority of the good players -- or at least anybody who can stick a 15-foot jump shot -- bolting college for the NBA after a year or two, this year's Michigan State championship team which featured three senior starters is certain to become the exception rather than the rule. Heck, it already is. The last team to cut down the nets that had that many seniors on the floor was UCLA in 1995.

But that could change if the NBA establishes a trade school league and begins competing for (read: paying) young players who want to make the court their full-time classroom. Under that setup, it won't be long before Gonzaga and Princeton start giving Cincinnati and Duke more trouble than they already do. And maybe that's no so bad.

Why should the colleges be responsible for training the future pros in football and basketball? It's not done that way in baseball and hockey, which manage to stage NCAA championships that are becoming more popular with few of the problems that have transformed college football and basketball into big and often tawdry business.

Scale everything back, and perhaps we can regain some perspective while getting rid of some hypocrisy.

Maybe then, as Bob Kravitz of the Rocky Mountain News pointed out in a column this week, Colorado State's Ritchie McKay won't be rewarded for walking out on a six-year contract extension, while any of his recruits who do the same will be docked a year of eligibility.

Like Gene Keady's hair, that just ain't right.