Four full days of wall-to-wall NCAA tournament failed to create a single real Cinderella as Arkansas is the only team seeded worse than No. 6 to advance into the Sweet 16. Tenth-seeded Colorado State could have joined them but their dreams ended when Maryland's Derik Queen banked in the tournament's first true buzzer-beater. On balance, the 48 games played over the long weekend were not consistently compelling and scholars may argue that the beginning of this year's big dance was among the least exciting in a long, long time.
On the other hand, the television partners drew record ratings and there are some awesome heavyweight matchups slated to begin on Thursday night. But before anyone gets too excited about those, paused to consider if we may have all just watched the beginning of the end for the sport of college basketball as a whole.
Stephen A. Smith began Monday morning by looking into the camera and offering a grim warning about what would happen if Cinderellas became a thing of the past.
"If this continues, it will be the death of college basketball," Smith said.
Now, if you're thinking "didn't NIL become available to college athletes in 2021 and haven't there been some amazing runs from teams like Saint Peter's, Princeton to go along with Florida Atlantic and San Diego State making the same Final Four," just know that you'll feel silly when this whole thing comes crashing down.