Expanding The Tournament

[Little Jerry Lawler]

The Big Ten commissioner has said that the NCAA Tournament will most likely expand. The logical conclusion is that it will expand to 96 times. I for one think that this is a horrible idea. The NCAA Tournament is about as perfect a tournament is you can get and expanding it to 96 is just diluting it. If you want to argue that the #1 seed deserves to get a bye, then by all means do. You're not adding 32 teams that have a chance to win the title. You are just adding 32 mediocre bubble teams. I think that expanding is a huge mistake and it just should keep things the way they are.

1. Do you think that the tournament should expand to 96 teams?

If you think it should, how would it make the tournament better?

If you think it shouldn't, how would it make the tournament worse?

 

[gd]

This is just fucking stupid. There is simply one and only reason, and that's money. It's as simple as that. It will only dilute the tournament field with more shitty teams and instead of an exciting first few days, we'll just have a bunch of games that nobody cares about. They had Pat Forde on ESPN today and he said that there are absolutely no media members or fans behind this, and there are even some coaches who aren't behind it. I for one, really hope we don't see this happen ever.

 

[Big Sexy]

There's no reason for this at all. It makes the tournament worse in every way. There could be some borderline .500 teams that will now make the tournament and that definitely takes away from the prestige of making the tournament. The conference tournaments also lose a lot of meaning because there won't be as many teams needing to make a run or win their conference tournament to make the big dance.

By doing this the NCAA is basically taking the 32 NIT teams and adding them to the NCAA tournament. 65 teams right now is really the perfect number. This expansion does not benefit the tournament or college basketball as a whole.

 

[48.7 is Approximately 49 Times Better Than You]

Virginia Tech and Arizona State would argue that this is a great idea. There are some very talented teams that do miss the tournament, due to there being so many automatic bids. A team like Washington would have been bumped if they hadn't won the tourney, and does LeHigh deserve a spot more than Washington would have this year? We've seen that there is so much parity in collegiate basketball now. A group like Nor. Iowa can build a group of seniors and make a lot of noise in the tournament. Gone are the days of the power-house teams dominating the mid-majors. With all of the great players being one-and-done, it gives the smaller schools a much better chance to compete. Adding the more teams is going to create more surprise upsets, if anything at all. It gives us more of what we love: basketball. It gives 300 more kids a chance at the dance.

What are the negatives? It "dilutes" and "devalues" the regular season and the conference tournaments.. Does anyone actually watch those anyway? What forces me to watch Georgetown vs Boston College in December anyway? There's no reason for it. The regular season already has no meaning. The teams that are going to get in will get in, regardless of if they slip on the road at E. Kentucky. Expanding the tournament will not devalue a season that already has no significance; it will only add excitement, fulfill the dreams of hundreds of kids and fans, and give us more basketball to watch.