by Paul Jordan
Funny organization, that NCAA. They continue to march on happily with an system that is clearly broken (the BCS), and start to tinker with the one thing that is perfect and clearly works — the 65 team NCAA basketball tournament.
The reason? Money of course. The NCAA currently has three years left on it’s 11 year, $6 BILLION dollar deal with CBS. However, the NCAA has the right to opt out of it’s current agreement after this years tournament and seek a bigger payday. Apparently CBS and Turner sports are working on a joint venture 14 year agreement to carry the tournament. ESPN and Fox sports are also rumored to be clamoring for a piece of the action. An unnamed ESPN source has been quoted as saying:
“It’s a done deal with the expansion of the tournament. Depending on how soon a (TV) deal is done, the added teams could start next year. The NCAA confirmed that bidders would be interested in 96 teams, so they’re going with it.”
The current “proposal” has the NCAA swallowing up the 32 team NIT tournament and then giving the top 32 teams a first round bye and then having the remaining 64 teams battle out for inclusion into what would then be a 64 team tournament. There are a lot of semantics to be worked out (how many conferences will get automatic bids, etc) but call me a purist, this idea stinks. Decisions that are made simply out of pure, simple GREED usually never work out. To be honest, I really see one reason to expand the tournament for several reasons.
One, the regular season would be rendered useless by expanding the tournament. The system is perfect as it is. Yesterday’s Mississippi/Florida game was essentially a play in game for the NCAA tournament. It was an exciting game and Florida kept their NCAA hopes alive with a three point victory. Yet, Florida is still not in. They still need one win from the Kentucky, Tennessee and Vanderbilt game. If the field was expanded to 96, where would the drama be? Both Florida and Mississippi would be in the NCAA, And the whole tournament champion gets an automatic bid thing? Might as well abolish that too. Who cares who wins the conference tournament if the “bubble teams” already know they are in? Where would be the drama to see if a post Calipari Memphis (60 RPI) can make the field?
Two, it would water down the tournament field. Here is a look at the current RPI rankings and the teams that would probably make the expanded field: 89 Arizona (13-12), 92 Georgia (11-13), 93 Alabama (14-11), 96 Duquesne (13-12) and 97 IUPUI (17-9). Do we really need to see a matchup of the bottom feeders from the ACC, SEC, and PAC-10 square off? Part of the argument for the expansion is that more smaller teams will get in for a “Cinderella moment”. That is utter bull. The BCS conferences rule in the NCAA and what we will see is more 7th and 8th place big conference schools getting in than an influx of mid majors. If the tourney expands by 32 teams, you can almost bet that 24 of those spots go to the “power conferences” and the NCAA will will add automatic bids to the winners of 8 smaller conferences that do not get that bid now. The NCAA knows that the power resides in the big conference.Perhaps the biggest travesty of using a RPI based system is that North Carolina is still ranked 82. Seriously.
The third reason is that it would throw off the balance of the entire tournament. As it is now, every team needs to go 6-0 to win the tournament except for the one play in team. If the 32 “top teams” get rewarded with a bye, this means teams like a lot of very good teams like Ohio State, Siena, UAB, and Florida State would now have to play an extra game to win the title. Where is the fairness in that? And like everything with the NCAA, the bigger conferences will benefit and the smaller schools will get screwed. Don’t think for a minute that the committee will gave a bye to Siena or UAB over teams like Louisville or Oklahoma State.
John Calipari actually points to this reason as to why he is against expanding the NCAA Tournament, along with the fact that the field will be watered down:
“There’s not 64 good teams … The best NCAA Tournament was when they had 32 teams. If you go to 96, then 32 get a bye and I don’t think any teams should ever get a bye. If you’re going to do that, then go to 128 teams, and at least that way, no one gets a bye”
Another point is this system rewards mediocre coaches. As Billy Gillispie found out last year, average teams do not get rewarded with a trip to the playoffs. And average coaches at big schools get fired for not making the tournament. Like it or not, it’s a way of life in college basketball. If UK and Gillispie had made the expanded NCAA Tournament and got to say the final 32, who he have been “rewarded” with another season? Would Billy Donovan have any pressure on him to win if his Gators kept creeping in as a 20th seed every year? Sorry, the rest of us have to perform and keep our jobs. Same goes for NCAA coaches. To that extenet, making the tournament would just serve to cheapen the accomplishment for everyone involved.
And finally and most importantly … how in the hell are we going to fit 96 teams on our office pool brackets? Seriously, do you want to try to shrink that tournament bracket to fit one one sheet? And who really wants to slog through a 96 team field? If you think that workplace production is down now due to people working on their tournament brackets, how much will it suffer due to us having to research 32 additional teams?
All joking aside … this is beyond the worst of bad ideas, right up there with the DH or having 16 teams make the NBA or NHL playoffs. Or the Bowl Championship Series. Yet, some coaches are favoring the expansion of the tournament like Jim Boeheim and Coach K. You figure Coach K will be a good lapdog and support whatever the NCAA proposes lest they threaten to finally release their findings on the Corey Maggette case.
But ask the fans and it’s pretty much unanimous that this plan sucks. But the NCAA has never really listened to people who actually buy the tickets. Case in point, the Bowl Championship Series. Instead of fixing that, they decided to meddle and attempt to ruin the one pure thing in sports, the 64 team NCAA Tournament. What a shame when greed takes priority over the fans. The NCAA will make their money. CBS is make their money. And once again, the fans are screwed.
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