The NCAA did its best to avoid canceling the 2020 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments but, in the end, reality set in and the correct decision was made to end the 2019-20 season without crowning a champion. With that said, the sports world is now barren with regard to game action and, with a gaping hole in its broadcast calendar after March Madness evaporated, the folks at CBS Sports are reportedly taking steps to provide some basketball content.
Richard Deitsch of The Athletic reports that CBS will re-air nine games from the past over three days (March 21, March 22 and March 29) with the games slotting in to windows previously assigned to the 2020 tournament.
College basketball diehards, I come with something you will love. Here is what is coming on CBS this weekend: pic.twitter.com/CveU5GIsvO
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) March 19, 2020
In addition to the six games displayed above, John Ourand of Sports Business Journal brings clarity on the schedule for Sunday, March 29.
CBS next Sunday (March 29)
1pm: 1985 National Championship: Villanova vs. Georgetown
2:30pm: 1997 National Championship: Arizona vs. Kentucky
4pm: 2010 National Championship: Duke vs. Butler— John Ourand (@Ourand_Puck) March 19, 2020
Quibbles could be made with the games selected, but it certainly isn’t a surprise that eight of the nine contests are national championship replays. The ninth is perhaps the best college basketball game ever played, with Duke’s Christian Laettner downing Kentucky in a memorable Regional Final matchup.
It will be quite intriguing to see how these games land in the ratings, especially when considering they are airing on a network, rather than on a cable network’s airwaves. Beyond that, there is probably a limited audience for games that already happened and, of course, CBS is aware of this. Still, it is a nice gesture to reach out to sports fans and college basketball supporters will be happy to watch the option to get their March Madness fix somehow.
