You know what really grinds my gears? The fact that the college basketball season starts earlier and earlier every year.

I love college basketball as much as the next person, but it seems as if the season now starts before even a clear championship picture is painted in college football. Of course money now controls the game, so in order for all the top teams to participate in various season-opening tournaments, games must be played starting right at the beginning of November. A more logical starting time would be waiting until after Thanksgiving, instead of Halloween, but then many different groups would lose the millions of dollars that come out of playing these early season games. Maryland (my primary rooting interest) started their season on the 7th, playing in the 2K College Hoops Classic. The "Classic," which has been around since only 1996, is set up to have four power schools host four-team mini-tournaments with the winning schools advancing to play in a championship round in New York two weeks later. The organizers pack these mini-tournaments with enough cupcake teams that the winners of the mini-tournaments (Maryland, Michigan St, Texas, and St Johns) won their respective mini-championship games by an average of 23 points. The other teams who agree to participate in this event are accepting the fact that they are supposed to lose because sponsors and TV executives don't want to see smaller schools playing in a meaningless event that needs high profile teams to draw any kind of attention. At least some people will watch Maryland versus St Johns, even though it's being played in mid-November. Why would these less talented teams play in this event, when it was designed for them to lose? Money, of course. The fact that schools are getting money for playing such lopsided games shows what has become of college sports. It's the same principle that has mid-major college football teams repeatedly travelling to Division I powerhouses like USC or Texas and getting beaten by 4+ touchdowns.

Maryland and the other teams scheduled to play later this week would probably get more out of being at practice than they do preparing for and playing in games that are practically decided before they're even played. These pre-season tournaments should be cut from the college basketball schedule and the season should start with meaningful games after the Thanksgiving holiday. Of course this will never happen as it's now the financial leaders that control the game. As the old sports proverb states: It's not whether you win or lose, it's the revenue you generate off the game.