Killing the Goose

Year in and year out, March Madness is the greatest of all sporting events if you ask me. Greater even than the Super Bowl, the World Series (except for 2016’s fall classic), the Olympics, the World Cup, the Master’s, the Derby, the Indy 500.

Nothing beats March Madness for sheer drama and heartbreak and elation. Nothing is so utterly unpredictable. Not one game, 63 games. Dozens of buzzers beaten, tens of millions of brackets busted. Stars born, giants slain, a champion crowned. Confetti drops, hardware is hoisted, that iconic song plays. One Shining Moment.

It’s so mad it can’t even be kept to the month it’s named for, always spilling over into April. In a matter of weeks in 2023, the National Collegiate Athletic Association raked in over a billion dollars from the sale of tickets and broadcast rights, marketing deals and merchandise licensing. This year, for the first time, the NCAA found pots of gold at the end of two rainbows. The women’s championship game had considerably more vie…