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March 14, 2007
That's What I've Been Saying!
Hater Nation touches on something I've been saying for years; why does the 64/65 game to get into the NCAA Tournament have to be between the two champs of two lesser conferences? Why don't the last two teams to roll off the bubble have to fight it out? Why do the 6th-place teams in the Big 10 and ACC always get in, while schools like Niagara and Florida A&M (whose appearance in one actual tournament will be the most meaningful moment of these kids' lives) get a trip to Dayton, Ohio, for a game that no one watches?
Next brilliant idea: pick the field of 64 and assign the games totally randomly. Kansas-Florida in the first round? Holy Cross, Niagara, Texas-Corpus Christi and Eastern Kentucky in one group, with one guaranteed a trip to the Sweet Sixteen? Let's do it!
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Comments
My solution is to take no more than 4 teams from any conference. There are 31 or 32 conferences, and about 8 are power conferences, like the ACC, Big Ten, SEC, Big East, Big 12, PAC-10. Those 8 get 4 bids automatically, and get one per region; that’s 32 teams. Another 8 get 2 bids depending on record (20+ wins), strength of schedule, and either winning their conference’s regular season title or their conference tournament; that’s another 16 teams bringing us up to 48. The other 16 get 1 apiece, bringing the tournament to 64 teams. Maybe if there aren’t enough conferences that qualify for 2 teams in one particular year, then the power conferences can get more than 4 based on record, how they did in the conference tournament, etc.
Either that or add enough teams so that there are 4 play-in games on Tuesday night (one per region) for a total of 72 teams. The 8 this year could have included Niagara, Florida A&M, Syracuse, Drexel, Air Force, Bucknell, and two others, maybe out of the set of Duke, Arkansas, Stanford, or Purdue that did get in but maybe should have been replaced by some mid-major with a better record. As it is the current play-in game is a who cares game, but if it was say Duke-Air Force, or something like that as a first round game, I’ll bet people would tune in to watch it as they do for the current first-round matchups like Texas – New Mexico State or Maryland-Davidson, or Duke-VCU, or Southern Illinois–Holy Cross.
Posted by: Vin | March 16, 2007 08:04 AM
