Sunday's March Madness bracket leaker is a Liam Neeson-level hero

Liam Neeson might be the only person who can dismantle the NCAA, if you really think about it. What we have each March Madness is a Taken-worthy hostage situation.  

College athletes' professional hopes are held hostage by the NCAA, which uses those dreams as leverage to enforce its ludicrous notion of amateurism while cashing gigantic checks for March Madness ticket sales, ad sales and broadcast rights. 

Fans, meanwhile, weren't even allowed to see the dang bracket this year without sitting through a two-hour selection show on CBS. Advertising is by nature a hostage-type situation -- "Want to see this? Well, you have to watch this first."

But even by March's bloated standards, that two-hour bloviation-fest was seen as extreme by most. 

Heroes emerge from the most dire of situations, however, and Sunday was no exception. Someone -- we don't know who; like most superheroes, this one's alter ego is a mystery -- leaked the bracket online. It was an act of civil disobedience that squirted mustard right in the eye of the sports oligarchs who collectively rule our fan experience. Now the oligarchs are angry.

Let's recap the details -- and why they matter. 

Greed motivated CBS and the NCAA to stretch the Selection Sunday bracket reveal to two hours from one this year. They can spin this any way they want, but the facts are clear as day. A two-hour show with extra filler allows more time to sell ads and exploit fans' attention using a high-value hostage: the March Madness bracket. "Money is my motivation," as the prophet Future once rapped sang warbled.

If you want to reveal the bracket, then get into two hours of analysis, fine. Good, even! But making us sit through two hours to get the full bracket? C'mon, son. 

Imagine greed tainting the experience of college sports! Did you know that if just 10 percent of March Madness TV revenue was funneled to the tournament's players, each one would get a payout of more than $79,000? It's true: The Big Lead's Jason McIntyre did the math. 

Instead, players get nothing. 

This, too, is a hostage situation in which the NCAA makes all the rules. A gun is constantly held to the temple of every player's college eligibility -- one false move, and the trigger can be squeezed. 

Now, on to Sunday's leak. The first tournament matchup wasn't revealed until 20 minutes after the start of Sunday's selection show on CBS, per Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch. It took 62 minutes for the show to even begin revealing the second half of the bracket. 

Thankfully, we have Twitter. About halfway through the show, a completed bracket appeared on the social network. Its origin was unknown, but the same filled-out tournament field popped up via multiple accounts. The supposed leak was met with skepticism at first, but each subsequent TV reveal further proved its authenticity. 

This was, of course, met with derisive glee by fans on Twitter. The NCAA ain't happy, though. Read the following in a nasally, tattle-tale tone.

“We go through great lengths to prevent the tournament field from being revealed early and the NCAA took its usual measures to protect this from happening,” NCAA spokesman David Worlock said in a statement released wide after the leak. “Unfortunately, and regrettably, the bracket was revealed prior to our broadcast partners having the opportunity to finish unveiling it. We take this matter seriously and we are looking into it.”

But here's the thing: What the hell did the NCAA and CBS expect would happen? The selection show used to be a half hour, then it was an hour, and this year for the first time became a two-hour farce. 

If greed compels you to keep taking more, more, more and more, it's only a matter of time before someone with a very particular set of skills -- skills they have acquired over a very long career, skills that make them a nightmare for the sports world's corporate oligarchs -- comes along and blows the whole thing up. 

Whoever leaked Sunday's bracket online is the sports Internet's Liam Neeson. Mysterious hero, please step forward to collect the adulation you deserve. We'll post a Kickstarter for your legal fund. 

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