Looks Like It's Official: NCAA Men's Basketball Field To Expand To 68 Teams

If CBS was actually capable of properly juggling all those games, it might be OK, but as this year showed us, CBS is a disaster in those situations.

I think the worst offense was what happened with the DirecTV package. Customers paying for the right to watch all the games on dedicated channels got taken away from their game of choice to watch the closing minutes of a game they chose not to watch. So a game they didn't want was on two channels, while the game they were PAYING FOR was put in no man's land.

What's the point of paying to see all the games when CBS was just going to force you certain ones in crunch time?

 

It'll be a doubleheader Tuesday-Wednesday each. The Tuesday winners get the Thursday-Saturday pods and the Wednesday winners go Friday-Sunday.

My guess is because of travel, there'll be one in Dayton (why Dayton originally, IDFK) and one in a Mountain Western location to serve that part of the country to make travel easier.

I agree that: 1. It's only fair that all No. 1's get to play a 16/17; 2. This is better than 96; 3. Hell will freeze over before a power conference team plays in a donkey game; 4. CBS winning the bid ensures the NCAA will remain in some semblance of the present order for the next 14 years. Grinnell in '25, bitches!

 

It's Dayton because the first year the NCAA went to 65 teams, Dayton was hosting a first/secound round weekend, and offered to host the opening game as well. It sold out, or close to it. The NCAA also let the opening night winner stay in Dayton to get killed by Kansas, I think, so there was no travel issue.

 

If the NCAA had expanded to 69 teams, you know what that would have meant!













(Actually ... I have no idea where this is going. Fail.)

 

Dayton usually drew pretty well for the play-in game, which is a credit to them, since there were always two low/mid-major teams that weren't exactly household names playing.

 

Well yeah it draws well. It's fucking Dayton. What else is there to do on a Tuesday night? Watch the bridges rust?

 

What else can we do to make sure the 16 seeds get their asses handed to them? Great idea; make 'em play an extra game and then give the 1 seeds additional time to prepare! I guess if the NCAA doesn't get 96 teams in hoops, it will somewhere (just saw a story about two more bowl games OK'd).

Damn idiots!

 

Do you think they would move it if, as has been suggested, the play-in games were for the last eight at-large teams in the field playing for 12 seeds as opposed to the weak sisters playing for 16s?

I imagine the NCAA could sell a lot more seats for Arizona State-Mississippi State and UConn-Virginia Tech than Mississippi Valley State-Mount St. Mary's and Texas Southern-Radford.

 

1) The play-in game already has good attendance, despite the crappy teams.

2) A few years ago, Morehead State's highest-rated TV appearance was ... play-in game. Web site hits to its official site went through the roof. Contrary to popular belief, the smaller schools benefit that one night of national TV to themselves rather than Virginia Tech being in the play-in game and on TV for the 10th time this year.

3) Making the play-in game for 12s would NOT make the field better, but making the play-ins for 16 DOES make it tougher.
Here's the logic: by having the four - or at least some of the four - overall weakest seeds eliminate themselves early, the 16s should be tougher (unless a 12-18 team wins a play-in game, no more teams with losing records around come Thursday of the real tourney). Second, some of those weak 15 teams would drop in to the eight-team play-in pool for 16s. A weak 14 becomes a strong 15 and a Dayton, Virginia Tech, UNC, Rhode Island, Mississippi State joins the field as a 12 or 13.

I don't see how you can argue the field is "tougher" with ETSU and Morgan State in it instead of Dayton, Rhode Island, UNC, VaTech, etc.

 

How can you call them idiots when you don't even know that's what the plan is?

 

Whether the move is playing four games for No. 16 or No. 12 seeds, the move to 68 for this year (not 96), in my opinion, is more to do with facilities. The NCAA contracts with facilities to host subregionals and regionals usually about three years out (the subregionals and regional sites are set through 2013). In order to go to 96, the dates would change to accomodate the seventh game. With other events in some buildings and the prep time to construct the court, extra stands (in the case of domes) and behind the scenes areas -- all to make sure the building is ready a day and a half out from the games to accomodate practice sessions, it might not have been possible to make it happen in every facility in 2011.

But the committee and the NCAA have over a year to work with to adjust 2012 dates to make 96 work.

Last year, according to one outside RPI site (could not find an "official" conference RPI from the NCAA), their bottom eight conferences were, in order from highest to lowest: Summit, A-Sun, Southland, Big South, Patriot, Northeast, MEAC & SWAC. The Big South and the SWAC were the play-in opponent conferences this year.

My guess is that Dayton continues to host the new setup for 2011 (four games in 1 or 2 days), because it's a proven attendance draw, and is an on-campus arena that is experienced in hosting every year.

 

That's a common conspiracy theory.
A question for you: Why do you think 96 is inevitable now that Turner & CBS have said 68 works for them?