By K.O. Jackson
Mommy, I love you. Very much.
But Mother’s Day is just another Sonday Sunday.
Santa, I still haven’t recovered from that coal lump you left me 20 years ago for a gift.
As a result, Christmas — unlike the kiddie kisses Hall-and-Oates sung about — isn’t on my list.
What makes my list of favorite days and holidays is today: Selection Sunday.
It’s March Madness, an almost month of basketball madness, which appears to be turning into Money Madness.
And simply, madness.
In 1987, folk singer David Barrett began singing “One Shining Moment.” The song plays at the end of CBS’ broadcast of the NCAA men’s basketball championship.
The song has also been sung by R&B; singers Luther Vandross and Teddy Pendergrass. Pendergrass recently died, but instead of playing his version this year —think of it as honoring the late singer —this year’s version will be sung by Grammy-and-Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson.
It’s good Hudson is the first woman to sing the song, but no one has explained why singers have been changed. That’s madness. Yet, it’s another reason why I love March Madness.
Here’s more March Madness: You can watch the NCAA Final Four at home or at your favorite watering hole for free, but this year the games will be shown in 3D in 100 movie theaters throughout the country.
For a fee.
Wait a slam-dunk minute.
Paying to see something you can see for free isn’t just madness, it’s borderline insanity.
Yet another reason why I love March Madness.
When the NCAA men’s tournament began spreading roots back in the late 1930s, there were eight teams. Since then, it has expanded from 16 to 32 teams, and in 2001, 65 teams received invitations to the Big Dance.
So maybe proving more is better — except when it comes to talk-show host Wendy Williams finding another excuse to talk about herself — there is talk of expanding the tournament to 96 teams.
If it expands, CBS and Turner Sports —which has never televised college basketball —have discussed sharing rights to the tournament; the broadcasting channel pays 60 percent of the annual rights and the other network picks up the 40 percent.
The networks would alternate yearly coverage of the Final Four.
The reason behind the change is, you guessed it, mad money.
Money madness.
CBS currently broadcasts the Final Four, and apparently, the NCAA can soon opt out of its 11-year, $6-billion contract with CBS.
However, there are still three years and $2.131 billion remaining on the current contract.
Other networks are interested in bidding on broadcasting the tournament and they also want to see it expanded.
Why make these changes?
More teams begets more games. More games begets more fans eating hot dogs...
Money madness, of course.
“Everything gets down to green,” said college basketball analyst Dick Vitale to the Orlando Sentinel. “It’s green, green and piles of green.”
And annually, during the three-week tournament, businesses lose piles of green.
For employers, the tournament means rituals: Employee-organized office pools, a potential dip in productivity and a decline in Internet speed, as workers soak up bandwidth watching live streaming broadcasts of the games during office hours.
“March Madness and the subsequent office pools have been going on long enough, that employers can no longer claim to be caught off guard by the annual event. Some have tried to squash these pools, most simply ignore them and others have found ways to embrace the tournament as a team-building and morale-boosting opportunity,” said John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., the global outplacement consultancy that yearly attempts to predict the tournament’s impact on workplace productivity.
Armed with an assortment of statistics from various sources, the firm estimates workers distracted by March Madness could cost employers as much as $1.8 billion in unproductive wages during the first week of the tournament, alone, based on 20 minutes of daily time wasting.
“Keep in mind that it is nearly impossible to gauge the impact of March Madness on productivity in an information-based economy where workers possess portable technology that allows them to work from anywhere and any time. This estimate is probably about as accurate as the point spreads computed by Las Vegas bookmakers,” said Challenger.
So Mommy, it doesn’t take a Vegas bookmaker to cover my bet that I’ll always love you. Every day is Sonday; not just Sunday’s Mother’s Day.
And Santa, we need to talk about that coal-as-a-gift gag. At least I hope it was a gag.
Anyway, we really need to talk Santa. We do. Honestly.
But that can wait.
It’s March.
Let the madness begin.
And bring much mad money.
• K.O. Jackson is the Kokomo Tribune’s business writer. He may be reached at kirven.jackson@kokomotribune.com or 765-854-6739.
