And of course, to make the analogy more complete, imagine that the NCAA tournament was contested not in March, but starting the next fall, running though the regular season, ending in the FOLLOWING March.
As a result, at any given time, a top-flight European team may be competing in four different competitions simultaneously: the domestic league (e.g.: The English Premier League), the Champions League, the domestic cup competition (e.g.: The FA Cup), and the league cup competition (e.g.: The Carling Cup). And if you don’t think that causes some scheduling and lineup headaches… 