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NCAA March Madness to expand to 96 teams

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I don't see what the big deal is. Just don't watch the first weekend of games, and essentially nothing will change for you.

All of the bracket competitions can start when there are 64 teams left if they want to.

ZOOYUKA said:
I am not sure that would even cut it. It seems like the bracket would get taller more than it would wider.
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It could be arranged without getting any taller, because there would be empty space behind the 32 teams that would get byes.

Or the brackets could just stick with 64 teams.
 
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There are 347 division 1 basketball programs. I don't think it's all that bad that more teams and student athletes get to participate in march madness. Besides, the lower ranked teams that make it are more likely to have true student athletes whose priorities are academics instead of athletics. Sure, they probably don't have a chance at winning the thing, but it'd be a nice experience for those kids.

If they're going to expand, I'd say keep the symmetry and expand it to 128 teams. There are 32 conferences total. Give an automatic bids to the top 3 teams of each conference. Let the conference decide if the top 3 will be determined by a conference tourney or regular season title, or some combination of the two. That's 96 spots already taken. The selection committee can then fill out the last 32 with at large picks like they do now.

Even with 128 teams, thats still only 1/3 of the division 1 teams. NBA playoffs admit 16/30, NFL playoffs admit 12/32. Seems fair to me.
 
the only expansion that made sense was expanding to 32 times, thus opening it to teams other than conference tournament champions.

It fixed the problem of a team that would go undefeated, or win their conference in the regular season being denied a birth simply b/c some upstart 12-17 scrub went on a hot streak for 4 games and won their conference tournament (not that it was common).

I suppose there isn't a strong history of scrubs winning the tournament (lowest seed ever was Villanova at #9 in 64 team field; year before was NC State at #8 in 32 team field), so there's perhaps little reason to think some 20 seed will wreck everything, let alone a 16 seed.

The first rounds will be pointless for the sport. It's only for advertising, which is stupid. That, and anything that moves it closer to the shithole NBA postseason (50%+ of teams participating = junk) is bad bad bad.

Also, the NIT is a decent postseason tournament, and was for several decades much better than the NCAA. This would effectively destroy a longer-running, historical staple of college basketball. I bet those guys would be pissed, being relegated to selecting teams no better than 10-20 on the season.
 
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So will they abolish the NIT? They should just combine the two if they are going to bother expanding the main tourney.

KT
 
this blows. you know just making the tourney is an accomplishment for most programs. its a tool for recruiting, it's great for the program to say we've made the tourney x years in a row, etc.
teams like Xavier, Baylor, Butler, not the traditional powerhouses that have other recruiting advantages.
 
dbk said:
Btw, doesn't this really hurt the Big East teams? They already play more games in their own conference tournament (combined) than other conferences.
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My guess is they won't care. there is a two-day bye for the top 4 teams and a 1 day bye for the next 4.
 
Gibsons said:
No reason to ever watch regular season ball then. Unless you want to see if someone can get their record up to .350 to make the tournament.
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I hope they structure it so that if you win your regular season you are in regardless of tourney results (applicable to all except Ivy). That way some of the lower-tiered conferences regular season winner doesn't get hosed because they had one bad game during their conference tourney. Plus, it will mean regular season will mean that much more.
 
KeithTalent said:
So will they abolish the NIT? They should just combine the two if they are going to bother expanding the main tourney.

KT
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I've read that the NIT, which is owned by the NCAA, will be absorbed and basically be the first round of games.
 
CPA said:
I've read that the NIT, which is owned by the NCAA, will be absorbed and basically be the first round of games.
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Makes sense I guess. Looking at the NIT bracket, this year we would have gotten some big teams in there (UNC, Illinois, UConn, etc.) so that would defintiely have brought even more ratings. Still, it takes away some of the luster of actually making it into the tournament. It's like all of those completely crappy bowls in the BCS.

KT
 
people complained when they expanded to 64 teams and now everyone loves.
same thing will happen here.

plus the nit would have to go away then.

there is no negative to this. more money. more games. more entertainment.
 
you're being a bit premature....the Big 10 commish saying he thinks it's likely while having zero involvement in the decision doesn't mean squat.
 
KeithTalent said:
Makes sense I guess. Looking at the NIT bracket, this year we would have gotten some big teams in there (UNC, Illinois, UConn, etc.) so that would defintiely have brought even more ratings. Still, it takes away some of the luster of actually making it into the tournament. It's like all of those completely crappy bowls in the BCS.

KT
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what crappy bowls in the BCS? yeah, no one watched TCU-Boise State, but it's still the fiesta bowl.
 
Why not 128? I don't like 96. WTF is the point of bye games. The most excitement comes in the first 2 rounds as it is. Sweet 16 somewhat too. Close games, upset galore, game after game, games overlapping, TV switching game to game.. Yeah it's fun. If you want 1 more round, just expand to 128, not some halfass 96... Ugh.

But yeah, it's not broken as it is right now.
 
Anubis said:
there were some pretty bad bowl games, some of the names of them were pretty lolable.
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You can't compare football to basketball. There is a lot more people who would watch a football game than a basketball game with nothing at stake.
 
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