Is it the first Thursday of the NCAA Tournament, or NFLs Conference Championship Sunday?
That’s the debate we’ll attempt to settle in this edition of “The Back and Forth,” pitting Conference Championship Sunday (represented by ESPN associate editor/producer Ted Bauer) versus the first day of the NCAA Tournament (represented by Storming the Floor co-editor Eric Angevine). If you think we’re completely missing the boat, and the argument should include “Opening Day” or “The Indy 500,” feel free to eviscerate us in the comments. Otherwise, here we go. Bauer (Conference Championship Sunday): This is a tough argument, to be sure. I’m gonna base my side on two things: (1) the quality and relevance of the contests and (2) the bonding aspect. Taking (1) first, as logic indicates you should do: the most compelling game on the first day or two of last year’s Dance was probably WKU over Drake, San Diego over UConn, or Belmont taking Duke to the very limit. None of those contests had broader relevance: WKU and SD went down Round 2, and Duke didn’t use their narrow escape to propel them
