On “Selection Sunday” each year, a committee appointed by the NCAA selects and seeds the top 64 Division I men’s basketball programs to play in their championship tournament. Oh, in case you missed it, there is an Opening Round that started in 2001 where two teams played for the final spot in the tournament. Starting in 2010 there were four play-in games, so 68 teams get selected for the tournament. The winner of each play-in game would go to one of the four regions, except this year, when two went to one region. Go figure.
What most of us think of as the first round is actually the second round. But on to my point of how to make March Madness even madder.
Even with 68 teams making the tournament, there is angst and gnashing of teeth and cries of “no fair” for those “bubble teams” that don’t make the tournament. No matter where you draw the line this would be the case, of course. (Note: Just because the top four NCAA DI college football teams play a mini tournament starting this year, don’t believe for a second that there won’t be impassioned cries of “unfair” from the next few teams in the final BCS rankings or whatever rankings they use.)
Why not let more teams in? I counted 160 teams with winning records this year. If each region gets a play-in team, that would be 96 teams playing tournaments in four regions – four 24 team tournaments.
Wouldn’t that take forever? Not necessarily. Pick four venues where you can have multiple courts, probably domed stadiums or convention centers. Monday afternoon would be the four games that got the tourney to a sweet 16. That evening – eight games on four courts. And yes, four teams would play two games the first day. That’s half a typical summer day for most players and less than they played in a day growing up on AAU tournaments.
Tuesday morning would be the four Elite 8 games. Tuesday evening would be the Final 4. Wednesday morning or afternoon would be the “championship” game in each region. The winning team would get on an airplane or a bus and head for their first round NCAA game. Nice guy that I am, I suggest giving them Thursday off and scheduling them for the Friday game.
Would anyone show up? You bet. I lived in Kansas City for years and would spend at least one day at Kemper Arena (“the hump in the dump”) to watch three or four NAIA games pitting small colleges in tournament action, many that I had never heard of. The games were great. (And yes, being Kansas City, barbecue was involved.)
Keep the tickets reasonably priced and give basketball junkies a chance to watch a couple games of basketball.
Would this hurt the NIT Tournament? (The what?) Probably. But playing for a chance to compete in the NCAAs actually makes it a much more meaningful tournament.
Incidentally, no #16 seed has beat a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament – though top seeds have fallen to low seeds – Weber State beat North Carolina, George Mason beat Connecticut, and a host of other powerhouses like Indiana, Arizona, UCLA, Syracuse, and others have lost first round games to low seeds.
Sound crazy? Undoubtedly it is. Maybe that’s why it would work so well with March Madness.
