Stephen A. Smith Had Grim Warning Amid Lack of Cinderellas in NCAA Tournament

Sobering to think about.

Stephen A. Smith is concerned about college basketball. / First Take

Four full days of wall-to-wall NCAA tournament failed to create a single real Cinderella as Arkansas is the only team seeded worse than No. 6 to advance into the Sweet 16. Tenth-seeded Colorado State could have joined them but their dreams ended when Maryland's Derik Queen banked in the tournament's first true buzzer-beater. On balance, the 48 games played over the long weekend were not consistently compelling and scholars may argue that the beginning of this year's big dance was among the least exciting in a long, long time.

On the other hand, the television partners drew record ratings and there are some awesome heavyweight matchups slated to begin on Thursday night. But before anyone gets too excited about those, First Take paused to consider if we may have all just watched the beginning of the end for the sport of college basketball as a whole.

Stephen A. Smith began Monday morning by looking into the camera and offering a grim warning about what would happen if Cinderellas became a thing of the past.

"If this continues, it will be the death of college basketball," Smith said.

"If this continues, it will be the death of college basketball." 😯@stephenasmith weighs in on college basketball not having Cinderella teams pic.twitter.com/Km2HlCCjRv

— First Take (@FirstTake) March 24, 2025

Now, if you're thinking "didn't NIL become available to college athletes in 2021 and haven't there been some amazing runs from teams like Saint Peter's, Princeton to go along with Florida Atlantic and San Diego State making the same Final Four," just know that you'll feel silly when this whole thing comes crashing down.

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