Day of Tournament Finals Leaves Fans in Question

The phrase "Superbowl Sunday" has been used for decades. Recently, however, many fans and even NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell have wanted to change "Superbowl Sunday" to "Superbowl Saturday". Why? Fans around the nation, especially on the east coast, have wanted to have a Superbowl party to go on and stay on until the late night without having the thought of going to work the next day.
Fast forward 1 month to the College Basketball National Championship game. That game is on a Monday! At first it sounds questionable, but Scott Leoni, New Jersey resident who needs Butler to win to win his group's bracket, says, "'Cause there's nothing else on on Monday so you might as well have championships games played on Monday."
The reason why the Superbowl, the BCS National Championship game, and the College Basketball National Championship game is complained about for timing is so often is because the most populated coast is the east coast, and the east coast is hit hardest with late national television shows. However, the west coast does not have it that bad. The National Championship game on the west coast starts at 6:23 PM this year and is scheduled to end sometime close to 9:00 PM this year. People of the west coast could even watch one of their favorite hour-long shows before going to bed.
Unfortunately, the east coast does, in fact, have it the worst. In the east coast, the game starts at 9:23 and is scheduled to end close to 12:00 midnight! Many have complained of how late the Superbowl ends in the east coast, but the College Basketball Championship game starts the same time the Superbowl would end. One solution that can come out of this is to have the game to be played on a Saturday. Scott Leoni adds, "Yeah. It really hurts the kids that have to school the next day (after the game). It would probably be better to have [the National Championship game] on a Saturday night."
For now, all we can do is complain because if the game has not changed its date in the past, what is the chance it will be changed now? It must have been brought up more than once for the committee to discuss the day of the week and time of the game, but they still have not changed it. After being asked if the day of the week should be changed for the National Championship game, Scott replies, "I do not because it's been like that for so many years that they probably won't change it. Plus you have to have the final four game on a Saturday which are two very good exciting basketball games so, you know, then you have to wait to games for the championship game, you don't want to wait another week for the championship game so they have it on a Monday."

A Unique Final Four

Barack Obama. Digger Phelps. Snoop Dogg. Dick Vitale. Joe Lunardi. Those are just some of the millions of college basketball fans that picked zero final four teams correctly. In fact, in ESPN.com's "Tournament Challenge", only 2 of over 5.9 million brackets sent in included all four Final Four teams in their bracket. Predictable? Not really. Unique? Yes.

 

The Favorites

As the highest seed remaining in the tournament, three seed Connecticut is hoping to not fall as a favorite like one seed Duke, one seed Ohio State, and two seed Florida have done in the tournament. This year, it seems like "favorite" is a dirty war as no number one or two seed made it to the Final Four. Much pressure is put on this team, but Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun has done this job long enough to know the best way to handle it. If UConn wins their next two games, Calhoun would be the oldest coach to win a Men's College Basketball Championship.

The Hot Team

Other than UConn, Kentucky was the only team that would not be a surprise to be picked to go to the Final Four. The Wildcats won their last 5 regular season games, including 2 seed Florida twice. Also, they are led by Coach John Calipari who has reached the Final Four 4 twice before, including 2008 when he was with Memphis. With so many arguments for Kentucky, one important factor against them is the lack of experience. 5 of the 10 players on the Wildcats are freshman including 17.3 point per game Brandon Knight who has stepped up to be the leader of this team.

Cinderella

VCWho? That's what many fans asked on selection Sunday. Now VCU is a commonly named college. Some try to be fancy and just call them "Virginia Commonwealth". Regardless of the name, the Rams reached the Final Four for the first time in history this year and they're still not done. They won five games so far in the tournament and 5 times this tournament they were not picked favorites. They are still not the favorite after all they have proved in front of a national audience but for them, there's not much to complain about.

Sleeping Beauty

After Butler's astounding run last year, the Bulldogs' run this year has not even come up as a surprise to many people this year. Despite that, many fans didn't even believe Butler would even win their first game. Now they are in the Final Four for the second straight year with something to prove after their heartbreaking loss last year over heavily favored Duke. If they beat VCU tonight, they will have a shot of redemption against the winner of UConn and Kentucky. The truth of it is that this is not a given. VCU has beaten "better" teams in this tournament and is going to give Butler a fight in tonight's game. On the other hand, there's no question that Butler is going to do the same.

Butler-VCU

One of the most unpredicted final four matchups in the history of the tournament, one Cinderella team will fall tonight in Houston as the Butler Bulldogs will play the Virginia Commonwealth Rams in what is sure to be a hard-fought battle. Another interesting fact is that both coaches are combined younger than 70 years old.

UConn-Kentucky

The Connecticut Huskies and Kentucky Wildcats are now the most prestigious teams remaining in the tournament and only one will remain after tonight, or tomorrow morning if the game goes on too late. The winner of this game will play the winner of Butler and VCU and will most likely be the favorites in the National Championship.