This Saturday, NCAA Men's Final Four tournament gets underway as college basketball's 2015 season reaches its apogee.
First up the Michigan State Spartans and the Duke Blue Devils go head-to-head at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, followed by a game between Wisconsin Badgers and Kentucky Wildcats at the same venue.
"To an extent, it's America's World Cup. You invest yourself financially and emotionally in teams you wouldn't otherwise know anything about," said Grantland writer Charlie Pierce on Off The Ball tonight, who explained how the popularity of Internet gambling has boosted the tournament.
It's almost 40 years since a team went unbeaten in an entire season, which is exactly what the Kentucky Wildcats are on course to do and Pierce described the team and programme as "pragmatic" and suggested that between three to five players will get picked up by NBA teams very quickly within the constraints of the 'One and Done' rule.
Kentucky head coach John Calipari (Steve Helber / AP/Press Association Images)
And the money awash in college basketball is extra-ordinary with Kentucky's coach on $8M a year, which according to Pierce is not even the highest salary among third level basketball coaches.
"A great number of the states in the United States, the highest paid public employee is either the football or basketball coach. Most of these guys are making millions and millions of dollars more than the President of their university. So it is a professional sport being conducted in this increasingly tattered blanket of being part of the academic process," said Pierce.
But he also feels the quality level is well below that of the NBA and that the step up is much tougher than between other American sports and their college equivalents.
"Even the worst player in the NBA would be the best player in just about any college team," he said.
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