NCAA Expansion

[thefish7]

Play in games are a joke as those teams get no rest and whomever wins has to play the no 1 seed ; 64 teams makes for a good tour. if they would come up with the same criteria for all the teams; they need to have 4 or 5 set rules and feed the teams resumes into the computer and let the computer decide the at larges based on that info; at least it would not be biased .

The teams that play in the play-in really have no chance anyway...

[BradleyBrave]

Play in games are a joke as those teams get no rest and whomever wins has to play the no 1 seed ; 64 teams makes for a good tour. if they would come up with the same criteria for all the teams; they need to have 4 or 5 set rules and feed the teams resumes into the computer and let the computer decide the at larges based on that info; at least it would not be biased .

The teams that play in the play-in really have no chance anyway...

That's why you have 8 bubble teams playing in for the 12 seeds. That would give some real meaning to the play-in games on Tuesday and Wednesday, and create a real Cinderella team or 2 should they make it through the weekend having won 3 games in 5 days.

[Da Coach]

The teams that play in the play-in really have no chance anyway...

Play-in schools, and schools like Bradley, Drexel, etc. do not strive to get into the NCAA with aspirations of winning it all. But they want desperately to have a chance just to play, with hopes to possibly win a game or 2. It can make a huge difference to these smaller programs.

Even though the purpose of the NCAA tournament orignally was to determine the best team, what has become every bit as important is revenues it generates for the small schools and how it affects the team's recruiting and future. A large number of Div I coaches even have bonuses written into their contracts if they just get into the NCAA.

If a marginal team gets an NCAA bid, it can have a huge boost to that team's recruiting, not to mention all the revenue it brings to that school and their conference. It can make the difference between a single good season for a team like Drexel, and maybe a long run of success if they would have gotten the revenue and exposure that an NCAA appearance generates (see Gonzaga).
Heck, maybe some of the midmajors could even stand a chance of taking some 4 and 5-star recruits away from the Big Boys!

That's why the big boys don't want to let it happen. They want to reserve the pie all for themselves, and not even let the smaller schools have a tiny slice.

[thefish7]

I agree with you DaCoach... That was kinda my point, play-in teams whether they are rested or not or have any chance of beating a 1-seed want to get in there. They can't realistically have a hope of winning, but getting to play 2 games on national TV is big for them. So, while expanding to 4 play-in games wouldn't make it any more likely for the play-in teams to win, it would get a few more in there to get the exposure, and maybe even get a couple more bubble teams into the actual 1st round seeds.

Play-in teams winning is not the point of adding additional play in games.

[Da Coach]

I remember an article last year, where the coach of the Monmouth Hawks (the team that won the play-in game and then got beaten in the 1-16 seed matchup by Villanova) was able to see it as a huge positive for their program. They got to play an NCAA game for a national TV audience and won!
He was able to go to recruits and tell them that they made the NCAA and won their first game! I don't know how much of a difference it made, but Monmouth had a pretty decent recruiting class.
A couple of them are redshirting, but one of their freshmen was 2nd on their team in scoring and was named the NEC "Rookie of the Year"--

http://www.gomuhawks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=62255&SPID=6806&DB_OEM_ID=14300&ATCLID=810395

[Howellmania]

An expansion would ruin the tournament. It's almost too big as it is. It should be exclusive.

I think it's pretty exclusive considering there are over 330 DI teams and only 65 make the field. If that was bumped to 68 with the addition of 3 play-in games, would it really cheapen the experience?

I guess your right, but doing that just starts the slippery slope and people will call for more expansions. I wouldn't mind seeing a tournament with just 2 teams from every conference only.

[Dubl R 1]

I'm sure many people disagree with this but I think there should be some REQUIREMENTS to make the NCAA field as an at large:

1. Must be at least .500 in your own conference.(regular season)
2. Must have an overall win% of .580
3. Anyone who cracks the top 25 SOS and top 50 RPI is an
Automatic Bid. (as long as no. 1 and 2 are met)

There should also be a reward/limit system for Conference RPI. This would apply to the top 5 Conferences as far as RPI ratiings, and would apply to At-large selections. The previous 3 stipulations still apply.

1.Number 1 ranked Conference(SEC this year received 4 AL bids)
A. Minimum 4 At large bids, maximum of 6 bids

2.Number 2 ranked Conference(ACC this year received 6 AL bids)
A. Minimum 4 AL bids, Max of 5 AL bids

3.Number 3 ranked Conference(Pac-10 received 5 AL bids)
A. Minimum 3 Al bids, Max of 5 AL bids.

4.Number 4 ranked Conference(Big Ten received 5 AL bids)
A. Min of 3 AL bids, Max of 4 AL bids.

5.Number 5 ranked Conference(Big East received 5 AL bids)
A. Min of 3 AL bids, Max of 4 AL bids.

This system would guarantee the top 5 conferences a minimum of 17 AL bids, and a maximum of 24 AL bids. Counting the automatic qualifier from these Conference tournaments this would guarantee the top 5 conferences a minimum of 22 total bids, and a maximum of 29 total bids.

This year for example the top 5 RPI conferences produced a total of 30 bids. 25 of those were At Large selections.

Under the Conference RPI reward/limit system, 1 of these teams would have to have been left out. I think a couple more would have been weeded out due to the second requirement listed above. Let's face it, if you don't finish at least .500 in your conference, chances are you aren't going to win the NCAA tournament anyway, why do they wast a selection on a team just because they play in a "power conference". If you are going to reap all the benefits of being in a BCS conference, the least you could do is go .500 in conference play to earn your bid.

These 3-4 new spots could then be awarded to "Mid-Majors" who had a deserving resume.

I know a lot of people say that these teams from the power conferences are tournament quality teams despite having worse records than alot of the mid majors, and they are right.

However the NCAA needs to get away from AWARDING teams the right to play in the NCAA for mediocre seasons just because they play in a so called tough conference, and start REWARDING
teams who win 20+ games, have a good conference record, and play a tough non conference schedule.

Finally I think by putting a premium on Conference RPI, and that partially determining how many teams are REWARDED with the right to play in the NCAA tournament will force the power conferences to try and outdo each other as far as RPI ratings go to get those last few coveted At Large bids. This would lead to those conferences going out and hopefully scheduling tougher Non Conference Schedules, thus further opening the door for Mid Majors to prove themselves.

Of course this will probably never happen, but I just think some sort of concrete guidelines are needed for the selection committee. They then can still seed the teams however they deem fit, but at least these rules would give other deserving teams a chance to play in the tournament, rather than just speculating on who should be in and who shouldn't be.

[RocketWatcher]

NCAA expansion is another example of the pussification of the United States. Affirmative action, political correctness, and all the other liberal crap needs to stop.

PS: You're entitled to the pursuit of happiness, not guaranteed (nor should anyone be) to be provided by for the government.

rant off

[yourbradleybraves!]

NCAA expansion is another example of the pussification of the United States. Affirmative action, political correctness, and all the other liberal crap needs to stop.

PS: You're entitled to the pursuit of happiness, not guaranteed (nor should anyone be) to be provided by for the government.

rant off

Love it!!!