96 team tournament?

[DuddingtonHoya]

Steward Mandel of SI has tweeted about an expansion to a 96 team tournament supposedly being a "done deal."

bit.ly/aBgkP3

What would 96 teams mean for Georgetown and the Big East? We could coast through the regular season?

[Cambridge]

It's only the dumbest plan in the world, but it would benefit us.

[hoyas big supporter]

very stupid idea.

[Just Cos]

I don't think it makes the regular season more meaningless, but it is still a bad idea. Between conference tournaments and an expanded NCAA tournament, the STUDENT athletes will need to take off the entire month of March.

[SFHoya99]

Ugh. Stupid.

[Elvado]

Feb 1, 2010 16:01:43 GMT -5 Just Cos said:

I don't think it makes the regular season more meaningless, but it is still a bad idea. Between conference tournaments and an expanded NCAA tournament, the STUDENT athletes will need to take off the entire month of March.

So the big winners would be Syracuse, Memphis, Kentucky, West Virginia, USC, etc...

[CAHoya07]

No me gusta.

Big day for NCAA rumors. Pitt is going to the Big Ten, and a 96-team NCAA Tournament will be in place next year. You heard it here first. Blah.

[hoya95]

It'll give more coaches some job security, give even more money to the NCAA and it will make out new overlords at ESPN happy. Otherwise, it is a complete disaster. The regular season will mean what exactly?

[superan]

31 more games featuring craptastic teams. Awesome.

[NCHoya]

This stinks. I think it does even more to de-emphasize the importance of the regular season. Also, the tournament is tough enough academically for these guys, this would make it even harder. I am interested to see the logistics but this is just stupid.

[seaweed]

but if you can sell it then it must be good dammit, this is America

[Jack]

It is pointless and probably bad overall, but I don't think a 96 team tournament is quite as ridiculous as people are making it out to be, if done properly. If you play the first round games at campus sites (and give home court advantage to the higher seeds), it doesn't mean much more travel- the visiting teams will lose 75% of those games and go home, then the real tournament starts.

As for making the regular season "meaningless," I don't see that either. Playing for seeding will be just as important as always, if not moreso when things like home court and byes could be at stake. The group that is hurt by this is low-major auto-qualifiers who miss out on the thrill of their one game in the real big dance. Effectively they are all going to Dayton now, and that is a bit sad.

[hoya95]

Feb 1, 2010 16:27:42 GMT -5 NCHoya said:

This stinks. I think it does even more to de-emphasize the importance of the regular season. Also, the tournament is tough enough academically for these guys, this would make it even harder. I am interested to see the logistics but this is just stupid.

I am guessing that the top 32 teams get byes, then Tuesday and Wednesday we get 16 "first round" games each. Then you are down to 64 for Thursday. Otherwise, the top 32 would have a full week off which really wouldn't work. The first weekend of the tournament is fantastic right now. But by the time it's over, even the most die-hard fan is pretty worn out. Adding two more full days of mediocre to bad basketball is just crazy. Oh, and greedy too.

[FrazierFanatic]

Feb 1, 2010 16:37:39 GMT -5 Jack said:

It is pointless and probably bad overall, but I don't think a 96 team tournament is quite as ridiculous as people are making it out to be, if done properly. If you play the first round games at campus sites (and give home court advantage to the higher seeds), it doesn't mean much more travel- the visiting teams will lose 75% of those games and go home, then the real tournament starts.

As for making the regular season "meaningless," I don't see that either. Playing for seeding will be just as important as always, if not moreso when things like home court and byes could be at stake. The group that is hurt by this is low-major auto-qualifiers who miss out on the thrill of their one game in the real big dance. Effectively they are all going to Dayton now, and that is a bit sad.

I would be shocked if the NCAA ever gave any team a home game in the tournament, much less 32 of them. Too much of an advantage, and too much complaining from the visiting teams. Then again, for the right TV deal, who knows.

[Just Cos]

Didn't seem meaningless when we won the Big East regular season back-to-back. Wouldn't seem meaningless if we did it again with a 96 team tournament to follow.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

how would they work this? one interesting way to do it would be to give both the tournament and regular season champions to all leagues automatic births. It'd cut down on the number of at large births you'd have to try and decide between, but it'd 1) make conference tournaments less meaningful to an extent, but not completely and 2) increase the # of crappy teams in the tournament. Do we really need 2 teams from the SWAC?

[GPHoya]

So 12 schools get assigned to 8 sub-regional sites. You have Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday games at 4 sites and Wednesday-Friday-Sunday games at the other 4. Top 32, or top four at each site get a bye. Everyone would need to complete their brackets on Monday to keep interest in this now diluted product. The NIT is taken off life support as 32 NIT teams are seeded among the undeserving small conference winners.

It gets Notre Dame back on the bubble as teams with losing conference records only need a seven-game win streak to be the American Idol er National Champion.

It is so stupid it almost has to happen.

[atlasfrysmith]

Feb 1, 2010 16:52:46 GMT -5 HoyaSinceBirth said:

how would they work this? one interesting way to do it would be to give both the tournament and regular season champions to all leagues automatic births. It'd cut down on the number of at large births you'd have to try and decide between, but it'd 1) make conference tournaments less meaningful to an extent, but not completely and 2) increase the # of crappy teams in the tournament. Do we really need 2 teams from the SWAC?

This is the only semi-decent expansion idea I've heard. But of course the NCAA isn't considering this in order to give the SWAC and other lower-tier conferences extra bids--we're going to see those spots going to middling major and mid-major teams with 18-11 records who would have been on the bubble and are now safely in. Of course there will still be a bubble, but the teams who lose out won't be Maryland or Syracuse or anybody who can get attention when they whine about being left out--it'll be teams who are 16-15 with no notable wins, and nobody will care but their own fans. So it'll be sanitized.

But then you'll have to give byes for the first 32 teams. And what will happen is all the lower conference champions that make the first round what it is--(don't tell me any of you get as excited by the 8-9 game as you do when Hampton beats Iowa State, 2nd round pairings notwithstanding)--get shuffled off into a play-in game.

Now, if you said that the byes went not to the top 32 seeds but instead to the automatic qualifiers, that could be interesting. Still a bad idea though.

Look, I'm fine with wanting to give more teams a chance to play in the postseason. But there's already a mechanism for that. Along with the Hoyas I root for a mid-major team that is likely to find itself near, but clearly below the cutoff for this year's tourney. But you know what? They'll go to the NIT, because that's what they earned, and they'll play hard and give the home fans a good show, and try to do better next year. And last year they played in the CBI--none of the teams were great, but it was a chance to play another few games, and that's where they deserved to be. That's life.

[lurkerhoya]

There are simply not 32 teams getting jobbed each year on Selection Sunday.

[SFHoya99]

I can't wait to see the first under .500 team get in. There will be many under .500 in conference as well.

Fantastic.