And at the intersection of incompetence and gluttony, may we present the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the bureaucracy that long since sold whatever soul it has left to CBS (for men's basketball) and ESPN (for women's basketball).

But don't take my little old word for it. Just read on. Read the snippets compiled from the last few days about the tournaments of both genders.

• News item: Providence College and Dayton - the homestanding, 11th-seeded Dayton Flyers - tipped off at 10:53 p.m. Friday night. Why? Kevin McNamara of the Providence Journal reports:

"The day started with a major problem as Buffalo and West Virginia played for more than two and a half hours. It featured 49 personal fouls and 52 free throws," he wrote.

"The day's first game began at 2:10, which was oddly the last of the four sites to start, despite having Seattle in the Pacific time zone and Omaha in the Central time zone also hosting games. It is unknown why the CBS/Turner executives chose to start games in Seattle and Omaha before those in Columbus, but after paying $10.8 billion over 14 years for the current TV contract, the networks own great say in setting tip times for the tournament.

"With the long runover from the opener, the second game between Maryland and Valparaiso did not begin until 5:12 p.m. That game finished just after 7:30, setting up a crazy scene in and outside of the arena. The NCAA sells tickets to a doubleheader for the second round, meaning fans get one ticket for the afternoon games and need a different one for the two night games.

"As soon as Maryland won, an announcement was made to clear the stands as soon as possible. With fans holding tickets to the night games waiting outside, the gates were eventually opened. The first game at night that was scheduled to start at 7:27 did not tip until 8:21."

So to recap: The committee awards one of the last four teams in the tournament two home games, a site in the Eastern time zone tipped later than games in Seattle, a horribly officiated first game threw off start times for the rest of the day and the logistics the NCAA had months to work out were still too much to overcome.

• News item: West Virginia coach Bob Huggins was asked about his team's 8:40 p.m. tip time for its second round game Sunday night against Maryland. Quotes from the podium:

"My opinion is it's not good. It's not good for anybody," Huggins said. "Not good for the players. Not good for the fans. I'll probably get in trouble for saying that. But I wish we could start earlier. Long day as it is sitting around being nervous.

"You've got all these games to cram on TV. And it's going to happen," Huggins said. "And one game runs over a little bit. But it just tickles me to death that we're doing this for the student-athletes. It's all for the betterment of the student-athlete."

• News item: Carl Adamec of the Manchester Journal Inquirer and SNY.com, the dean of UConn women's basketball beat writers, wrote this nugget the other day:

"From Rebecca Lobo's junior season of 1994 through Sue Bird's senior year of 2002, UConn sold out 20 consecutive NCAA tournament games at Gampel Pavilion. The Huskies' second-round game against Rutgers Monday night marked the 14th straight non-sellout."

It was UConn's second straight tournament game that began at 9 p.m., another ESPN-dictated start time for the most passionate fans in women's basketball.

"There is nothing we can do about it," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "It's the world we have created. The NCAA has given up its right to make these decisions to the people that pay them, no matter who it might be. They call the shots. They get to tell you who is playing and when and at what time. And that's all there is to it, which is why it's tough to pin down dates and times (to begin selling tickets) until the Selection Show. I don't understand it. Somebody had to play at 9 p.m. and it was us. I guess we should be flattered. But as I've said on many occasions, what's best for television isn't necessarily what's best for our fans."

The weekend's crowds (roughly 3,600 and 3,400) were among the worst postseason crowds ever at Gampel, recalling the 2,585 against Clemson in 1990 and 1,535 vs. LaSalle in 1989.

"It's not indicative of who our program is and where we are and what we've done all of these years to get to this point," Auriemma told reporters Sunday. "It's kind of embarrassing. We took great pride in who we are and what we've done and how we've done it all these years and for that to happen … I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, I just think it's embarrassing.

"It's indicative of all sports. Things are new and fresh and alive and it's, 'Hey, let's go check it out.' After awhile, 'Eh, I'll watch it on TV.' I don't think it's any different in baseball, in football, any sport. There comes a point where they go, 'What's the point? They're going to win.' And they'll look for excuses why - the tickets are expensive, it's what time the game is, it's the parking, it's where I'm sitting, it's everything you can imagine to justify it. Who's to say they're wrong?"

So to recap: ESPN fertilized the only fans who care about women's basketball. Meanwhile, ESPN decided that two Pacific time zone teams, Arizona State and Stanford, would begin at 1 p.m. local time Saturday. And while UConn played at 9 p.m. Monday, Stanford played host to Oklahoma at 3:30 p.m. local time in Palo Alto.

"It makes no sense. It makes no sense to me and to our fans," Auriemma said. "If somebody said to me before the tournament, 'What's your ideal situation?' I would have said Saturday at 4 and Monday at 7. Or Friday at 7 and Sunday at 2. You look for windows, knowing what our fan base is, to get eight, nine, 10 thousand fans. But I don't make those decisions."

Television and the NCAA, folks. They deserve each other.

But we all deserve better.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.

Twitter: @BCgenius