Following last year’s Men’s NCAA Tournament, which was widely seen as exceptionally predictable and devoid of major upsets – often described as “chalkier than a shelf of antacids” – a prominent narrative emerged. This widespread belief suggested that the advent of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policies and the transfer portal had fundamentally altered college basketball, thereby ensuring that the era of the beloved “Cinderella story” – where an underdog team makes an improbable deep run – was permanently over.
