A real bracket buster: 96-team NCAA tourney?

Re: Everyone gets a trophy: A 96-team NCAA tourney?

Excellent point. That first round of games would look a lot like the ESPN "Bracket Buster" slate. And they'd probably all be on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, much like the play-in game is now, so they could keep the three-weekend format of the tournament.

In fact, I think I'll rename this thread.

 

Re: Everyone gets a trophy: A 96-team NCAA tourney?

What would suck about the worst teams having to play the opening round games? That's the way it was when the NCAAs were a 48-team tournament. The first round would consist of the 32 lowest seeds, which means a bunch of low-major conference winners and teams that got in by the skin of their teeth. They're not going to send Northern Iowa and Gonzaga there just because they're not in a BCS conference. No matter how much the mid-major paranoids will screech about it, as they do every year when they complain that mid-majors got fucked in the ass personally by Billy Packer. Whether the facts are on their side or not.

 

Another brilliant idea.
Let's take a tournament that works perfectly and is hugely popular and water it down and make the field unwieldy so more mediocre teams/coaches can feel good about themselves.

Given that so many first/second round sites don't sellout now, can you imagine what the first-round games in a 96-team field would draw.

 

They don't sell out? I remember looking online for first and second round tickets the last couple years and seeing "SOLD OUT" next to damn near every site.

 

Tell me that when you see all the empty seats

 

Well yeah, if you're going specifically see Syracuse or Canisus at noon, you probably aren't going to hang around for Miami-Air Force at 10 p.m.

 

You want to see empty seats, go to an SEC tournament after Kentucky has been eliminated some time ...

 

Exxxxactly. Those venues still sell out. In 2006, when we followed Mason around, Dayton and DC were both sold out. Were the arenas filled to capacity for each game? Hell no. I had very little interest in sitting in the arena all day.

 

Re: Everyone gets a trophy: A 96-team NCAA tourney?

I question that. If anything, it will reduce their chances since teams from Big Conferences will be able to trumpet their having played more NCAA tournament qualifiers within their league. How much better will the 10th-place team in the Big East look if the nine above it are all in the tournament, compared to the third- or fourth-place team from the Valley?

Is it worthwhile to compare college basketball and baseball to football seeing as there's no I-AA in the former two?

 

With a 96-team tournament will the Ivy and NEC still only get one team each in the tourney?

 

I don't know that this is case everywhere, but I know there are instances where you have to buy tickets for all three sessions: Thursday afternoon, Thursday evening, Saturday afternoon. The same person who dreamed up this policy must also be the one who makes you buy the exhibition games before the NFL regular season starts up.

 

Here's an idea: Instead of expanding the tournament, why don't we shrink Division I and let Bob's Upstate Institute fight for a D-II championship instead?