The NCAA MUST Be Joking

It's time to put the Eagles to rest and start talking college basketball. I would talk about the Sixers, but there is absolutely nothing to talk about. They suck.

As of late, the NCAA has been discussing expanding the NCAA tournament to allow more teams. The expansion plan that seems to be gaining the most ground is the idea to expand to 96 teams, giving the top 32 seeds a bye into round 2. I wholeheartedly disagree with this plan. First, expanding the tournament is never going to quell controversy. Whether its team 66 or 97, some team is always going to be making the arguement that they were better than team 65 or 96. That will not change. Second, granting 32 favorites a free pass to round 2 lessens the chances of a huge Cinderella upset, thus killing the spirit of what makes the NCAA tournament my favorite sporting event of the year. Under this plan, Upstart Directional School A will now have to win a game before even getting a chance to take down the big boys. So much info can be gleaned from that one game against superior competition that the large schools will be much more prepared for the little guy they historically have looked past to the delight of viewers everywhere. To top it off, most small schools will have to pull an upset to even get a chance at upsetting a top 8 seed. That KILLS what makes week 1 of the tournament exciting, the 5-12 matchup, the 3-14 game that goes down to the wire. At best, there would be 1 or 2 of such matchups anually.

What upsets me most about this plan is the obvious hypocrisy of the NCAA. Allow me to explain. They are proposing to make the NCAA tournament a month-long affair, using "fairness" to all as a smokescreen to hide the real incentive, money. Umm, excuse me. Is this the same NCAA that calls the BCS "fair" and cites prolonged distraction from academics as a big factor in their reasoning for not instituting a college football playoff?? The NCAA is full of BS. If they are to expland the NCAA tournament to 96 teams, television revenue from the the expanded coverage would be worth hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars. THAT is the real incentive. If they gave two bits about fairness, Boise State and TCU would have had a shot a proving the BCS to be a flawed system, instead of being placed in a game against each other and a lose-lose position. Win and you're only better than the other non-BCS team, lose and "see, I told you they weren't that good".

As for the NCAA tournament, if the NCAA was anything other than a bunch of money-grubbing scumbags, they would seriously consider a much more feasible, much more fair expansion plan. Expand the field to 68 teams with 8 teams playing in play-in games to face the #1 seeds. This is a win-win for everyone. First, the 16 and 16a seeds will get a shot at winning a game in March instead of just being offered up as sacrificial lambs to the beasts of college basketball. Also, 3 more at-large bids will be available. This is significant because, let's be honest, there are only ever really 3 or 4 teams with a legitimate gripe for being left out of the tournament. Lessening that number by 3 would be huge because, in my opinion, 1 good team being left out of the tournament is a whole lot more fair to viewers than letting 32 mediocre teams in, diluting the product that has thrilled us for decades.

All in all, I actually find it pretty hilarious that the NCAA is spending so much energy on fixing the wrong championship format. The same people who don't want a tournament in one sport want an even larger, all-encompassing one in another. If the NCAA were a person, they would definitely have been on "I Love Money" by now.