As a new college basketball season opens, early-season showcase events are "both symptoms and self-reinforcing causes of the sport’s status quo, in which the most fortunate programs find themselves in a virtuous cycle involving wins, money, coaching and recruits -- as well as exposure," according to Marc Tracy of the N.Y. TIMES. Duke, Kentucky, Kansas and Michigan State tonight will play in the Champions Classic at MSG on ESPN for the "sixth straight year." Next month, the CBS Sports Classic in Las Vegas "will have featured the same four programs" for three years now: North Carolina, Ohio State, UCLA and Kentucky. CBS Sports Exec VP/Programming Dan Weinberg said of the field, "These are the blue bloods of the sport." Tracy notes one sign that the top programs involved in these events are "virtually guaranteed to remain perennial contenders" is that ESPN in August "signed its four teams to the Champions Classic" through '19. CBS "may be looking to do something similar." Weinberg said the net "really likes the deal." ESPN VP/College Sports Programming Ilan Ben-Hanan said, "In every sport, there are certain schools or teams that carry glamour." ESPN and CBS "can have faith" in the strength of the fields on a year-to-year basis "because, in college basketball, the rich have stayed rich." The early-season events are "not mere bystanders to this phenomenon," as the exposure they offer is "something these programs can sell to prospects" (N.Y. TIMES, 11/15).
