College sports are clearly still going through growing pains since the dawn of the NIL era. Dominant teams remain dominant, but the mid-level teams seem to have grown to a place of dominance not seen before. Look no further than how far Texas Tech football program managed to climb off of the back of oil industry money boosting their NIL capability. Do I even need to mention Indiana winning the National Championship?
The same seems to have taken hold in March Madness as well. The Cinderella stories of insignificant teams making huge waves looks as if it is over. Now, Texas, along with their $22 million in NIL funds, are the ones who we are considering the underdogs.
Well, this is not an encouraging trend for Cinderellas. ...
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) March 21, 2026
The NCAA tournament went to 64 teams in 1985. Only 7 times have the 13-14-15 seeds all gone winless in the first round.
It's now happened two years in a row (for the first time).
Texas is an 11-seed.
— Sam Block (@theblockspot) March 22, 2026
Texas went 9-9 in the SEC.
Texas played in the First Four.
School size means nothing.
Texas is absolutely a real Cinderella.
EVERY SINGLE FAVORITE WON OUTRIGHT TODAY 🤯 pic.twitter.com/JJiUooBSzo
— br_betting (@br_betting) March 21, 2026
We have now seen two consecutive years of 13-plus seeds going winless in the first round. Some upsets occurred, sure, but none of the teams who have advanced should be considered outliers. They all boast good programs. Again, Texas at an 11 seed is being considered a Cinderella story. What happened to the madness part of March Madness?
Money has always controlled college sports, so let’s not act like this is completely uncharted territory, but it was never near the degree which we have seen today. When we factor in the insane growth of sportsbetting, it seems that the commercialization of college sports has only just begun to explode.
I’m all in favor of these players being compensated for the work that they do. They provide their universities with millions upon millions in revenue while risking their health to do so. What I don’t want to see is destruction of the most interesting subset of sports. The relaxed transfer portal rules and the plague of conference realignment have contributed greatly to that already. NIL looks like it is just driving the knife even deeper.
College sports are on life support, and only major reform can save them.
