if you want to water it down for the sake of getting more $, then simply allow all teams to play in the tourney

3/14/2010 10:35:15 PM

there's better teams than oakland not getting a chance to play for the national championship, so I don't have much of a problem with 96.. just gets the shitty conference winners out of the way earlier so the real best 64 can play. but i don't really care either way

3/14/2010 10:38:35 PM

i won't be happy until a 24 seed beats a 1 seed.


honestly, i've never had much sympathy for the elusive "first four out." if you can't make a good case on the floor for being a top 64 team in the country, you don't really deserve to be in the tourny.

[Edited on March 14, 2010 at 11:25 PM. Reason : ]

3/14/2010 11:22:57 PM

being the 96th team in the tourney is equal to playing Rutgers in the Papa John's Bowl

3/14/2010 11:26:16 PM

yeah, kinda.

3/14/2010 11:27:47 PM

i like you, mls

you're OK in my book

3/14/2010 11:29:00 PM

Concerning automatic bids, they could do what they did for this year's NIT concerning Jacksonsville:

Jacksonville split the Atlantic Sun regular season title with Campbell, Lipscomb and Belmont, but the conference tournament was won by fifth-seeded East Tennessee State. The Dolphins earned the automatic NIT bid by advancing the furthest of the four in the Atlantic Sun tournament even though Lipscomb was the #1 seed in the tournament.

3/17/2010 10:51:13 PM

bttt

4/5/2010 1:19:39 AM

The watered-down field and the complete destruction of the term "student-athlete" is upon us.

4/5/2010 1:30:32 AM

^Yeh, I love how they say at the press conferences, "The student athletes will now answer your questions."

4/5/2010 1:34:58 AM

instead of doing this, they should raise the bar for being a div 1 school knock out ten or so conferences that never accomplish much in the first place.

4/5/2010 2:11:50 AM

The NCAA should only be the Big 6 conferences!

4/5/2010 2:14:08 AM

the ncaa should have 33 conferences!

[Edited on April 5, 2010 at 2:26 AM. Reason : and nearly 350 teams!]

4/5/2010 2:26:31 AM

this proposal better invalidate every argument against the idea of a playoff in college football.

thats the only good that i see, and its only a glimmer. this is a sad day

4/5/2010 2:49:31 AM

i will support this if there's an asterisk beside your name if you lose in the play-in round

that should be considered an NCAA Tournament appearance

4/5/2010 9:11:08 AM

getting to the ncaa tournament will be absolutely nothing when this happens. we could be seeing the top 9 or 10 teams in the acc getting in to the tournament, from now on. terrible idea

4/5/2010 1:42:37 PM

^Yeah, kinda makes the conference tournaments pointless. We're 12th in the conference, but maybe if we win our conference tourney we'll get ahead of Millbrook High on the bubble.

Also kinda makes the entire regular season pointless... other than for seeding. Just win your 10 games and rest up for the tournament. But you can't go to an 8 game tournament in football because the regular season wouldn't matter anymore... even though one or two losses could still put you out of an 8 team tournament.

Money is the argument. I think I heard CBS is in massive debt with their NCAA tournament. This was their way of creating more games and therefore more money in ad revenue. Kind of a different beast with college football. They can still televise all their meaningless bowl games and get their money.

4/5/2010 1:52:37 PM

I fucking hate this idea, btw.

If/when this happens and we make the tourney but we're not one of the 1-16 seeds, I won't really consider us "making the tournament." That'll probably last all of one year.

4/5/2010 1:58:57 PM

I guarantee that our first round game will be on espnu

4/5/2010 4:19:11 PM

Quote :

"I think I heard CBS is in massive debt with their NCAA tournament."

Citation needed

4/5/2010 5:35:46 PM

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5100441

Hooray! CBS keeps the NCAA Tournament...but they have to share it with Turner.

They're also going to alternate the Final Four between CBS and Turner...why? Why do it on cable/over-the-air every other year? At least do what the NBA does and put the Final on over-the-air so everyone can see it. TNT just gets up to the conf. finals.

But hey, GUS JOHNSON lives on, and I hope Charles Barkley comes on board, too, now that TNT has games.

4/19/2010 8:16:34 PM

Breaking news

Going to 68 teams

4/22/2010 12:34:42 PM

Citation Needed

4/22/2010 12:38:30 PM

ESPN

[Edited on April 22, 2010 at 12:41 PM. Reason : here's a link http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5125307]

4/22/2010 12:40:23 PM

WRAL

...basically every sports news source

4/22/2010 12:41:02 PM

well, sounds like that's the end of WRAL being the best local station ever and showing every game on their secondary channels

4/22/2010 12:43:47 PM

I wanna see some Joe Lunardi bracketology.

4/22/2010 12:47:04 PM

meh. so i don't have to flip between 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3. Now I get to flip between WRAL, TBS, and TNT. No big deal. Thank god they didn't expand any further than this.

4/22/2010 12:48:21 PM

^ Unless it's specifically outlawed in the contract, my guess is this will be the beginning of a slow expansion.


I wonder if there will now be four play-in games in Dayton.

4/22/2010 12:53:30 PM

68 teams, huh

-shrug- whatever

4/22/2010 1:22:02 PM

Quote :

"well, sounds like that's the end of WRAL being the best local station ever and showing every game on their secondary channels"

well that's the point of this expansion... all the games will be televised nationally, it appears.

Quote :

"As part of the agreement, all games will be shown live across four national networks beginning in 2011 – a first for the 73-year old championship."

[Edited on April 22, 2010 at 1:46 PM. Reason : ]

4/22/2010 1:43:26 PM

better than 96

4/22/2010 2:54:26 PM

this is the best thing they could have done, from 1 to 4 play in games instead of 1 to 16. only downside is it adds more bubble talk, but I can deal with listening about what to do with the VTs of the world instead of if Illinois State is worthy of a 24 seed

4/22/2010 3:17:39 PM

Glad it's only 68 and not 96. I assume they'll stay at 68 until the new contract runs out in 2028 or whatever? Herb can rejoice now as he is the bubble coach of bubble coaches.

4/22/2010 3:22:15 PM

68 won't change much. That means 3 out of the 4 top seeds in the NIT would have gotten in.

4/22/2010 3:46:55 PM

Does 4 play-in game pass the threshold for having to pick the winners in your bracket? Up to now I've seen it #1 seed vs. "play-in winner".

4/22/2010 4:20:12 PM

ESPN CBB blog raised had an interesting idea

Are the play-in games going to the bottom eight automatic qualifiers or to the last eight at-large teams in? It'll almost definitely be the automatics, but I like both ideas.

Quote :

"That means 3 out of the 4 top seeds in the NIT would have gotten in."

No it doesn't

Quote :

"Glad it's only 68 and not 96. I assume they'll stay at 68 until the new contract runs out in 2028 or whatever? "

I've read all along that 68 is just the first step to 96. I don't think they'll need to wait for the TV contract to expire to expand further, but I haven't really followed it that closely.

[Edited on April 22, 2010 at 4:27 PM. Reason : ]

4/22/2010 4:25:53 PM

I hate the idea of 8 teams playing to be 16 seeds and get slaughtered by 1 seeds

Make it the last 8 at larges and have them playing for 11 or 12 seeds

4/22/2010 4:29:40 PM

With the lowest 8 automatic qualifiers in the play-ins, you'd be getting some would-have-been-15-seeds, which I guess increases the chance of #1 seed losing in the first round.

4/22/2010 4:32:53 PM

THANK YOU, GOD!

68 teams is so much better than a ghastly 96 team affair. I think it makes more sense than the current 65 teams we currently have. At least it can't be changed until 2016 and non-hd folks can watch any game on the 4 network viewing platform.

4/22/2010 5:22:22 PM

1. They aren't done with the idea of the 96 team tournament.

2. Starting in 2016, CBS and TBS will alternate showing the Final Four.

3. MMOD stays, but it's unclear if it will be used for the TBS or TNT games. It's ultimately the NCAA's say, and I would hope they'd just force Turner to do the same thing w/ their feeds.

I don't like the idea of the Final Four on cable (what about those kids that want to play ball whose parents can't afford it?), but I think that they had to give this to TBS in order to beat out ESPN.

On an unrelated note, ESPN getting this would have ruined at least 2 sports. The tournament would have been all pay tv, ESPN 3 sucks, and the final stretch run for the NBA would be ignored, not to mention the leadup to MLB opening day. I don't want all sports in one place, I want the networks that cover the sport the strongest covering things (CBS for college, ESPN for MLB, Turner or I pray to god NBC for NBA, etc).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/22/AR2010042203235.html

[Edited on April 22, 2010 at 6:30 PM. Reason : .]

4/22/2010 6:29:43 PM

Quote :

"The number of 16-seed play-in games is increasing, but it's only going up to two, not four. Instead, there will be another pair of them for the last four at-large teams in the tournament. That means that, until two days before the 64-team bracket kicks in, we won't know for sure the full composition of the 11- and/or 12-seed line. "

GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY

http://www.teamspeedkills.com/2010/7/12/1565960/new-ncaa-basketball-format

7/12/2010 4:38:56 PM

THE FIRST FOUR

7/12/2010 4:42:32 PM

Quote :

"RT: @kenpomeroy Is there another tournament where a better-seeded team is required to win more games for a title than a worse-seeded team?"

7/12/2010 5:18:24 PM

Quote :

"if it's not going to be 64, then it should be 68, and just have 4 play-in games for all the #1 seed opponents"

yea, those last few teams should have to play someone of a similar caliber, then play against the number one seeds. that to me would be far more interesting than having these weaker teams automatically have a lower seed

7/16/2010 12:49:56 AM