NCAA Tournament Expansion to 96 Teams?

In less than a month, NCAA presidents will discuss and vote on whether to expand the NCAA tournament from the current 65 teams to 96 teams. That would amount to 32 "opening round" games to bring the field down to 64 teams. The 32 "opening round" winners would play 32 teams who received buys.

What do I think of this? I personally hate the idea.

One reason is purely from being a fan. The 64 team bracket is filled out by just about everyone - people who don't follow college basketball all year fill one out. If it's 96 teams, I think the participation will go down quite a bit.

The next reason is because of logistics. I take the first Thursday and Friday of the tournament off to watch those 32 games. Now there will be 32 opening round games followed by 32 first round games - when are those going to be played? I can't take 4 days off to watch all the games. Do I watch the opening round games and skip the next round, or vice versa? Do I pretty well skip them all and just watch what I can?

The next reason is because it's not rewarding a good season. This expansion would basically eliminate the NIT postseason tournament (32 teams). In the NIT this year were North Carolina (5-11 in the ACC) and Texas Tech (4-12 in the Big 12). Those seasons are worth rewarding?

I hope that the NCAA decides to award automatic bids to teams that win EITHER the regular season or the tournament for their conference, and require that at-large bids be given to teams who are at least .500 in their conference regular season. Those two rules would allow more mid-major teams into the tournament. The teams from 65 through 96 are not teams that are going to win the NCAA tournament - the lowest seed to win an NCAA tournament is a #8 seed, and the lowest to make a final four is a #11 seed (twice, both times lost in the semifinals). So it doesn't really matter who you open the tournament up to - they don't have a chance of winning it all, anyway. So, in my opinion, it would be better to open it up to more mid-major teams instead of more high-major teams.

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