I started thinking about the NCAA possibly expanding the tournament to 96 teams. It’s my understanding they would swallow the NIT and just include those teams that would normally be selected. For example, a North Carolina team that’s not good enough to be in the NCAA Tournament this year might sneak in as the 90th team. This seems like a bad idea on the surface and I was completely against rewarding bad teams. But then I gave it a little thought.
My idea for expanding the tournament would tack on only a weekend, if that. Really, it would be possible to keep the normal start date of the NCAA Tournament and provide the illusion of a 64 team field.
I propose having a 32 team play-in mini tournament over 3-4 days (there’s a small problem with this, mentioned below). This would break down to a 8 team play-in mini tournament for each region. I believe this would be a fair way to include 32 subpar teams without disrupting the integrity of the NCAA Tournament as we know it today. Plus, we get the bonus of potentially receiving a big name matchup for the 1 seed versus 16 seed game. This might be the only way we will ever get to see a 16 seed knock off a 1 seed.
I’ll admit, there are some logistic issues to work out. But the way I see it, the “NCAA Tournament” could start on the Monday prior to the regular Thursday start date. All 32 teams would be in action on the same day, just in different locations.
The first day in each location would consist of 4 games, with the winners advancing and the losers going home. Day 2 would be games between day 1 winners (2 games). And Day 3 would be the “region championship.”
This still leaves a small problem however. If the winner were to advance to be the 16 seed, that would only be a total of 92 teams. So the region tournament winners would have to face a predetermined opponent, who would normally be a 16 seed any other year. This could possibly be accomplished on the night of the 3rd day, with all 1 seed versus 16 seed games taking place on Friday to allow a day for travel. Sure it makes them play 4 games in 3 days, but why give special treatment to the play-in teams? They should just be happy to have a chance, right?
Hey, I said there were logistic issues. But personally I like this better than having 1 vs 24, 2 vs 23, etc. And this gives a great chance for the office pool people (me) to win (or lose in my case) a little extra money before the real fun begins.