NCAA official sees no more early Madness after 2008

Kentucky will not have the opportunity to stage an early Midnight Madness celebration of basketball after this year, a NCAA official said on Tuesday.

David Berst, the vice president for Division One, said he expected the NCAA Board of Directors to ban early Madness celebrations in the future. The board could take that action at its Oct. 29 meeting.

“I’d be surprised if we didn’t have that (ban) after Oct. 30,” Berst said.

Kentucky, Illinois, West Virginia and Marshall are among the schools doing Madness celebrations prior to Oct. 17, which is the official date college teams can begin practice.

The schools circumvented the Oct. 17 date by taking advantage of another rule which allows schools two hours of team practices per week from Sept. 15 to Oct. 17. UK will save its two hours this week and use them Friday night at Madness.

The early Madness gives schools a near monopoly of attention in the basketball world. With few competing attractions, a school like Kentucky has a better chance of attracting recruiting prospects to visit the campus on this Madness.

The NABC opposes the early Madness because it gives critics ammunition to thwart the coaches’ desire for expanded practice opportunities in the summer, executive director Jim Haney said last week. Critics can say the early Madness celebrations show coaches aren’t interested in furthering their players’ skills as much as looking for recruiting or promotional advantages, Haney said.

Berst echoed that observation and said a ban on early Madness celebrations would solve the problem.