Soon college basketball fans will be immersed in the other “March Madness” — the crazy commerce occurring off the court in this so-called amateur sport.
While top Division I teams get ready for postseason play, also-rans prepare to make expensive changes. Athletics directors marshal their buyout funds. Doomed coaches strap on their golden parachute and seek a soft landing.
Upwardly mobile coaches jump schools for bigger money. Even the most entrenched coaches welcome outside overtures to keep those lucrative extensions and raises coming.
This fiscal insanity is fueled by two market forces: the seven-digit NCAA Tournament incentives and the impatience of wealthy boosters bankrolling these programs.