Thank You Lord: NCAA To Stagger Tournament Start Times, Show All Games Live In All Regions

According to an Associated Press report, the NCAA is going to stagger the start times of tournament games in order to stagger the endings of tournament games. Which, as you must know, is possibly the greatest news ever.

I have been to Vegas multiple times for the NCAA's first weekend, and it was always a let down that you essentially had to wait two hours for games to end, and when they did, they all ended within five minutes of each other. Granted at the sports book you can watch all games at once, but think about the fun in watching one, then 15 minutes later another, followed in 15 by a third, then within the hour a fourth. Think about the gambling, the ripped tickets flying through the air. The intensity in the crowd.

If done properly, there could be a continuous stream of buzzer beaters and upsets. Think work productivity dips during the tournament? In the current system employees could still muster some work in between games, but now? No way, no how! Great for fans. Horrible for bosses.

Back to reality, this is something I've been pining for for a long time. The only two flaws I ever saw in the NCAA tournament were that all games ended at the same time, and they took that break between the early and late games.

Besides staggering start times, all games will now be shown live! No more cut aways or breaks, plus now you can be certain your team will be on TV in whatever region you live. All you need is CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV.. which generally come with all cable packages.

I would like to declare today, Thursday, February 10, 2011 as the day the NCAA finally started listening to me.

Now if they could do something about the BCS.