All Signs Point to March Madness Expanding to 96 Teams

yeah, this is retarded. ruining something that works and leaving the BCS broken.

i hate this idea

When asked to comment, Rick Barnes said “Phew”.

Why stop at 96? Let’s bump it up to 192.

Bigger is not always better, says the midget hooker.

Madness!

Our goal for next year will be to make it to the 2nd round of the tournament.

Horrendous idea.

I think they should just scrap the tournament and have pollsters pick the top 2 teams to play a 1 off game to decide the champion. That would be way better.

The unintended consequence of expansion is all the coaches that would be fired for failing to make the dance.

Steve -

Could you write a bit about the NCAA’s origins and how they evolved into a hugefuckingmongous commercial operation.

Do they have a P&L anyone can review?

I think non-profits generally get fucked up due to absence of the profit motive but for these guys to wield their power (or not) in such arbitrary ways while making a fortune off the backs of these kids makes me seethe. There is such an obvious conflict there it’s comical.

What’s the latest on the Ed O’Bannon suit?

Also, Nate H had some stuff on Balogun and the kid form UNC, I think.

In case anyone wasn’t aware this (March Madness) is exactly why we’re not likely to see a playoff in division 1a football in our lifetimes. Or I should say the NCAA’s $6 billion deal and distribution (or lack there of) is why. Iowa State may never get to the BCS but they still get a pretty hefty chunk when Texas goes. If the NCAA wrangled control of a playoff system for football do you really think the Cyclones would be getting as sweet a deal?

The $$$ has spoken!

FMA: The lack of a football playoff has nothing to with March Madness. The BCS has the football money and sees no good reason to give it up to the NCAA. If I were them, I wouldn’t either.

IMO, you’ll sooner see a breakaway of the BCS schools from the NCAA to run their own basketball tournament than the BCS handing over control of football postseason to the NCAA. I’m not saying that would happen, but of the two, it’s more likely.

Eliminate the regular season and have a 300 team single elimination tournament. MADNESS!

Entities without a true competitor are bound to fuck things up and enrage their minions. i.e., Rome (not Jim), ESPN, the NCAA.

I hate that you’re right.

Fuck this noise and fuck the NCAA.

The NCAA, in true myopic fashion, seems to fail to recognize that one of the great drivers of the tournament is the office gambling associated with it. At 64 (65) teams, the casual fan who maybe watches one or two of their alma mater’s games each season doesn’t mind filling out the tournament sheet each year, because the number of games is manageable and you don’t have to be Trips Right to throw together a tournament sheet in 15 minutes. “Hey, my buddy went to Stanford, I’ll pick them, and Southern Illinios, their the suluki’s. Those are funny looking dogs and I think they had a good team once, I’m taking them deep into the tournament.”

At 96, the tournament sheet is going to be silly looking and essentially every big conference will get all their teams in except the last one or two, choosing teams becomes a laborious process whereby your picking between a couple of 12-15 teams you’ve never heard of. “Um Morgan St. vs. NW Oklahoma? Ah, hell, I have a deadline at 2. I don’t have time for this shit, and there’s no way I can justify knocking three consecutive thursday’s in a row to watch basketball. Fuck it, I’ll just watch the Final Four, it’s always Kentucky or North Carolina vs. Kansas.”

I’ve got a better idea.

Let’s cut it down to 32 teams, and go double elimination.

Dump the pretenders and wannabees. Focus on the good teams.

Or cut it to 16 and have a best of 3 game series at each round.

Even better idea? Leave the damn thing alone.

24 hour music channel killed music, 24 hour news channels killing news, and 24 hour sports channels in full swing.

A 96 team basketball playoff, and a 2 team football playoff. Makes sense.

We could just have an And 1 Tourney and invite all of the AAU coaches in as ’special guidance counselors."

I am completely indifferent to college basketball. I watch the second half of maybe 2-4 Texas games a year, and will follow Texas through the tourney. When they are out, I am done watching. Sometimes, I watch the 4th quarter of the title game. That being said, the only thing that would make me more indifferent to college basketball would be to expand the tournament. This is a unitard idea, unsurprisingly propounded by a bunch of unitards. Say what you will about the BCS (I know I do), but at least it was an improvement over the previous system.

Just make it an open tournament. Come one, come all.

“Sometimes, I watch the 4th quarter of the title game.”

The best is when it’s tied at the end of regulation, and they have a shoot-out. And if they’re still tied at the end of that, they play an extra 18 holes the next day. “Extra innings” is what they call it.

I believe lazer just proved his point about how indifferent he is to basketball…

I love the mock tournament The Chronicle put together – 96 teams and Tech STILL doesn’t get in.

There you have it. When it comes to basketball, I am like a child who wanders into the middle of a conversation…..

I guess I should say I sometimes watch the second half of the second half? Wouldn’t that still be the fourth quarter? No, wait, fourth period, right? Or do they divide basketball games into thirds? How many rebounds is in a hat trick?

I can’t wait for football to come back.

That was fairly evident as well.

Fire Bob Wetlick!

From the perspective of designing a tournament that will efficiently crown the best team as “champion,” expansion is ludicrous. Over the 25-year history of the 64-team field, the statistics clearly show that the tournament is already bloated beyond need. For instance:

Only 6.5% of teams participating in the Elite Eight round are seeded lower than 8th. Only 12.5% were seeded below 6th.

Only 2% of Final Four teams were seeded below 8th. Only 5% were seeded below 6th.

No team seeded lower than 8th has ever made the national championship game. In fact, 45 (90%) of the 50 national finalists have been seeded 4th or higher. Only 2 of 25 national champions in the 64-team format have been seeded lower than 4th. 76% of national champions have been seeded 1st or 2nd.

If the goal is to determine a champion, there’s clearly no need for the tournament to exceed 32 teams. Over the last 25 years, not a single national champion would have been excluded from a 32-team tournament. Even a 16-team tournament would do the job with less than 10% error (assuming the 2 national champions seeded lower than 4th were truly the best teams, and not simply beneficiaries of luck).

nordberg said:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:32 am
"Sometimes, I watch the 4th quarter of the title game."

The best is when it’s tied at the end of regulation, and they have a shoot-out. And if they’re still tied at the end of that, they play an extra 18 holes the next day. "Extra innings" is what they call it.

Loud laugh for that one.

I started watching the NCAA tournament in 1997 or 1998 and in 1998, Valpo’s incredible run to the sweet 16 hooked me for life. Since then, I’ve completely ruined a spring break cruise because, let’s face it, the NCAA tournament is way better than sitting by a pool. Now I fully intend to crush my work productivity because I can stream the shit.

If the tournament expanded to 96, I don’t know if I’d be drawn in by the novelty of it or if it would turn me off. I know that I love the current system and, like the elderly guy that stubbornly stomps out the burning back of shit on his porch, I oppose change. Does the NIT even exist if the NCAA tourney expands to 96? Not that it really matters, but it seems that on any given year, the NIT could struggle to find 64 teams with .500 or better records.

No.. 64 teams is enough if not to many. That is like having more bowl games in the football season. The regular season in basketball is already showing insignificant value.

Good God. If the NCAA was dating Brooklyn Decker, it would insist she get a nose job and anal bleaching.
Stupid fucks.

I also don’t like the schedule.

Admittedly, you work yourself into this problem, but let’s say you’re Minnesota. You had to play four in four days to sew up your NCAA spot. You played the last game on Sunday before the announcement. You could be playing against Tuesday night. That is crazy.

WILL SOMEONE THINK OF THE NIT?!?!

WHO WILL PLAY FOR THE RIGHT TO CLAIM THEY ARE #97 IN THE COUNTRY?

NIT will be dead under this.

The NCAA owns the NIT, so this is their way of just encorporating into March Madness.

Based on Brick’s numbers, I’d rather see something like a 32 of 48 team double elimination tournament.

Play the same number of games (or even a few more), but with less teams. Then you end up seeing the good, big name teams play more games. I would think that would draw much better ratings/attendance than Kansas vs some sacrificial 16 seed scrub.

Somewhere in rehab Sean Sutton is pissed this didn’t happen 4 years ago.

The NCAA, apparently, could fuck up a soup sandwich. Piss on Myles Brand’s greedy grave.

This thread is full of win, with nordberg’s post and the link to the sooner that didn;t play semi-pro ball.

I just had diarrhea in my pants thinking about how many horrible teams would allowed to play

Geez, everytime I see blogs this good I just want mine to be there already! :) Great work.

Nice article, nice blog as well got some great tips thanks.

I like the fact that there are going to be more basket ball teams.