March Madness is in full swing, but JJ Watt has identified a problem that is “cannibalizing” college sports.
The triple NFL Defensive Player of the Year, who played much of his college football with the Wisconsin Badgers before a successful professional career, hit the transfer portal.
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On March 24, after only two rounds of 2025 NCAA Tournament Once completed, the portal will open and provide teams with a 30-day window to transform their rosters.
The major problem with this timing, of course, is that any team that made it to the Sweet 16 won’t be able to focus on building for the future because they’re still involved in the playoffs.
However, this is not an exclusive problem. college basketball — football’s winter transfer portal ran from Dec. 9-28 last campaign — which directly overlapped with bowl season.
Taking to social media, Watt expressed frustration with the “absurd” schedules and compared them to NFL free agency.
He wrote on X: “NCAA transfer portal opens before March madness (the same as opening the football gate before the bowl season ends) is absurd.
“Literally cannibalizing your own sport.
“Imagine NFL free agency starting the Monday after Wild Card Weekend…”
Watt’s annoyance seemed to resonate with other fans, who shared similar sentiments.
“Sadly, college sports are ruined,” one person wrote in response to his statement.
“Okay. That makes no sense,” said another.
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“This is ridiculous! The gate timing undermines the season and teaches athletes to jump ship instead of facing challenges head on. Adversity builds character,” wrote a third.
Watt, of course, raises a good point.
Not only would moving the transfer portal after the playoffs in college basketball and football likely increase popularity around it, but the decision would also mean that teams that make deep playoff runs would not be at a disadvantage.
In addition to lashing out at the NCAA for “cannibalizing” his billion-dollar March Madness tournament, Watt also joked that he would boycott Tater Tots after his old school lost to BYU this weekend.
The former Badgers football star watched Wisconsin’s Big Ten basketball program suffer a painful 91-89 loss in the second round of the 2025 tournament at the hands of the No. 6 seed Cougars.
Before the match, Watt showed his support for Greg Gard’s team and also talked about some funny anecdotes.
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The best stories from March Madness
“I have to honor and pay tribute to the BYU kid whose great-grandfather invented Tater Tots,” he wrote on
Unfortunately, his Badgers fell to the Cougars and shortly after, Watt announced that he was going to impose a temporary ban on himself from Tater Tots.
“Boycott Tater Tots for the next 48 hours,” he posted.
Between losing his Tater Tots and exposing a major flaw in college sports, it was a pretty rough weekend for poor Watt.
How to watch March Madness in the UK
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March Madness is one of the most exciting times of the year for basketball fans, with a total of 68 teams competing to become Division 1 college champions.
This year, UConn has the chance to become the second team to make a March Madness threesome, having been victorious the past two years.
talkSPORT will have the latest news on the tournament, but for UK basketball fans the way to watch it is through Sky Sports. The broadcaster will broadcast ALL March Madness games via its Sky Sports+ streaming service.
Click here to sign up for a Sky Sports subscriptionor read our article on best Sky Sports deals available now.
