NCAA tourney expansion?

The theory of the committee is teams play their way in, no one plays their way out.

Those whose bubble bursts have no one to blame but themselves (don't be afraid to play some difficult nonconference games, home, neutral or away; and have a winning record in conference play).

 

not only that, but you would have some foul first round matchups. Think anyone would travel to see a .500 team that finished 9th in the SEC play a .500 team that finished 7th in the Atlantic 10?

 

I suggest one-team conferences with no actual games played. That way every team in the country wins a conference and national championship.

Think of the coaches that would get to keep their jobs! Think of the civic pride in the towns that contain these universities! Think of the sense of pride students on these campuses would have! Think of what a much better society this would be! Just think!

File NCAA Tournament Expansion under chapter 65 of my in-the-works book entitled "The Pussification of America: We're All Winners"

 

I don't know...one more day of games (and the ones that draw the biggest TV audiences are always the early rounds) might make CBS officials pretty happy.
What are 30-sec ads during the opening weekend going for now? Now add an extra day, and a lot of extra $$$$$ for CBS.

 

You wouldn't have SOME foul first-round matchups - they'd ALL be foul.

Your first round would consist of 1-32, 2-31, 3-30, 4-29, 5-28, 7-26, etc etc etc. Until finally you got to the really exciting matchups - the 16-17 and 15-18 pairings. Woo hoo!!!

This idea sucks as much as anything could possibly suck. It needs to be shouted down from every corner of the nation.

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Of course the coaches want it. It means better job security for them...

This will be an absolute travesty if it happens. A No. 16 can't beat a No. 1, how is a No. 32 team going to fare?

The NCAA Tournament is as close to a perfect event as there is in sports. They soiled it a bit by adding that stupid 65th team. This would permanently soil the tournament if they decide to do this...

 

If CBS wanted more games, there'd already be more games.
CBS wants secretaries and accountants filling out office pools.
Try squeezing 128 teams onto one page. Try getting people to fill out the extra round.
No chance.

 

The entire first round (actually, the first weekend) would become the equivalent of U.S. Olympic basketball teams vs. Lower Tanzanikya, in which there are two objectives, and two objectives only:

1) Win, but not by so many points everybody comes down on your ass for being arrogant mean nasty unsportsmanlike impolite obnoxious and cruel; and

2) Don't get injured.


A whole weekend of teams walking through games, intentionally playing at about 40% speed. Wonderful. Should make for terrific TV viewing. Sure, once every five years you'd have a first-round upset. Awesome.

 

I have a feeling, if it happened, we'd have eight regions with eight No. 1 seeds ... so no 32 seeds.

Every team has the opportunity to get in the NCAA tournament now ... it's called conference tournaments. Win them.

 

The first-round matchups would still feature the overall No. 1 seed vs. the overall No. 128, No. 2 vs. 127, etc etc etc, all the way down the line until you get to 64-65.

 

This idea, of course, would kill the NIT. Not altogether a bad idea since the Postseason NIT is an anachronism. But kind of a shame since the NIT has history and has been a consolation tourney for teams for some time.

But 128 for the NCAA is too many.

Yeah, it evens out the bracket (just like 64, 32 or 256 would). But there will barely be 128 teams with a .500 or better record. You'll really be dipping into the Lipscombs and Stony Brooks (no offense) to fill a bracket out.

I might be in favor of killing the NIT, making the NCAA 96 teams, and giving 32 byes. Then a top-4 seed would matter.