Tournament Needs a Touch-Up

¿ Twenty-minute halftimes. These first came into existence in 2003 at the request of CBS so it could use the time for updates on the war in Iraq, which began the night before the tournament started. Much like the war, the 20-minute halves apparently are with us indefinitely, though the updates are long gone.

¿ Starting times. There should never be a basketball game that tips off after 10 p.m. local time. The night doubleheaders should start no later than 7:02 and if CBS insists on staggering starting times to stagger finishes -- which is silly anyway since games are rarely played in exactly the same amount of time -- then start other games at 7:07 and 7:12. It is not fair to players or fans to have games ending after midnight, especially on Thursdays.

What's more, the new starting times for the Saturday region finals, 6:40 and 9:05, are a joke. Forget the fact that they blow up Saturday night newspaper deadlines for two-thirds of the country (although the NCAA should care about people being unable to read about a game that decides a Final Four slot on Sunday morning). More importantly, it means the players have to sit and wait for a late start that helps no one except, apparently, CBS. Fans have to kill time all day, too. The old times, 4:40 and 7, were too late. This is ridiculous. The only reason the Sunday games are more reasonable (2:30 and 5) is so CBS doesn't lose "60 Minutes." Thank God for "60 Minutes."

¿ Corporate "champions." What is it with the NCAA and euphemisms? Sponsors are sponsors just like the players are players. Call them what they are: people lining your pockets. Nothing wrong with that in America.

¿ The signs and banner in arenas. If you want to host the NCAA tournament, you must take down every piece of signage in your building. We're not talking about your corporate sponsors' signs. They, of course, have to come down so the NCAA's corporate "champions" get the sole exposure. That's fine. Those folks pay a lot of money to be champions. But team banners, retired numbers -- everything has to come down. Would someone please explain to me how the presence of Yvon Labre's retired number in Verizon Center would have hurt the NCAA tournament last weekend?

¿ The pod system. It served its purpose -- distracting people from the fact that the committee screwed up in 2001 when it sent three Washington area teams (Georgetown, Maryland and George Mason) to Boise, Idaho. Once, the committee needed to keep teams close to home to sell tickets. That's not the case anymore. North Carolina should be in Houston this weekend and Texas should be in Charlotte. If Memphis as a No. 1 seed has to play Texas as a No. 2 seed on what will sound like a home court for Texas, it's flat-out wrong. It's also wrong for Louisville to play on a virtual home court for North Carolina, but that's a flaw of the current rules. Change the rules.

¿ No students to be found other than cheerleaders and band members. Isn't there some way to ask each school -- all of whom are raking in millions from this thing -- to designate 200 seats apiece in their big-bucks section for actual student-non-athletes? Those are, allegedly, students playing in the games, right? If you do see any students, they're up in the rafters, several miles from the court. There's nothing worse than the big-bucks fans who might not have seen a game all season sitting in the front row bellowing at the officials on every play as if they have any idea what they're talking about.

Then again, they're usually quiet during the official timeouts and the 20-minute halftimes while the PA guy thanks all the corporate champions, tells everyone the second game will start at 10:10 and reminds everyone that NCAA "student-athlete" day is April 6.

Seriously, they do that.

Thank God for Davidson.