March Madness a bedrock in ever-changing college landscape


              FILE - Oregon State head coach Wayne Tinkle celebrates as he walks off the court after a Sweet 16 game against Loyola Chicago in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Saturday, March 27, 2021, in Indianapolis. In college hoops, where virtually all success is measured by how a team, or conference, fares in March Madness, the 2022-23 campaign about to kick off looks a lot like business as usual. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)
            
              FILE - Kentucky's Dre'una Edwards (44) celebrates after making the winning shot to beat South Carolina in the NCAA women's college basketball Southeastern Conference tournament championship game Sunday, March 6, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. The 2022-23 basketball season will include players getting paid and suiting up at new schools for the second consecutive year, all allowed now thanks to compensation deals and the transfer portal. All those players are aiming to make it to March Madness, the one-of-its-kind postseason free-for-all that might be the glue that holds together the increasingly fractured NCAA. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
            
              FILE - Colorado head coach Tad Boyle watches from the bench during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Washington, Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022, in Seattle. If the latest spasm of conference realignment in college sports was supposed to spell doom for the Big 12 or Pac-12 — or for any other conference, for that matter — somebody forgot to tell the basketball coaches. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
            
              FILE - Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim reacts as his team plays against Pittsburgh during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, in Pittsburgh. “At the end of the day, you play for the tournament,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said recently in summing up what college basketball season boils down to. “If you can't play in the tournament, then you're not good.”(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)
            
              FILE - Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon, center right, and his team celebrate after they won a share of the Big Ten regular season title after defeating Michigan in an NCAA college basketball game, Sunday, March 8, 2020, in College Park, Md. In basketball, whether a team wins a  conference regular-season title, a conference tournament title or no conference title at all has very little bearing on what the final verdict will be. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
            
              FILE - Jackson State celebrates after winning an NCAA college basketball game in the championship of the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament against Alabama State, Saturday, March 12, 2022, at Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Ala. In basketball, whether a team wins a  conference regular-season title, a conference tournament title or no conference title at all has very little bearing on what the final verdict will be. (AP Photo/Julie Bennett, File)
            
              FILE - Gonzaga guard Jalen Suggs (1) celebrates making the game winning basket against UCLA during overtime in a men's Final Four NCAA college basketball tournament semifinal game, Saturday, April 3, 2021, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Gonzaga won 93-90. A few years ago, with the football-playing Mountain West Conference perennially knocking on the door, Gonzaga cut a deal with the WCC: It would stay in the hoops-only league if, instead of splitting things evenly, the conference would give the Zags a bigger share of its NCAA tournament proceeds based on how they performed in March. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
March Madness a bedrock in ever-changing college landscape