NCAA Tournament Expands to 76 teams

[Clonehomer]

"Additional games to ignore."

8 additional games

 

[cyclones500]

8 additional games

I stand corrected. I decided to remove the # from my post, I'm losing track with all this new tournament math.

 

[Nycclone]

Hope the plan is to have the 16 seed games on one channel and at large on another at same time so I don’t have to watch the crap games ever unless I choose to do so.

 

[aeroclone]

"Additional games to ignore."

Yeah, this. I pretty much ignore the play in games already. As do the sites I've used for bracket pools.

 

[MTCyclone43]

With the NIL portion of the NCAA college athletics in full rage- do we really need more teams in the Tournament? In my opinion- NO! The days of the upset by these marginal tournament teams is over with all the talent degradation that is happening at the mid-major level. The easy transfer and NIL have made it difficult for mid-majors.

 

[psycln11]

At least Bruce Pearl will be happy now.

His Auburn team would have been a guaranteed lock for the Pocatello play-ins this past season.

 

[Clonehomer]

Hope the plan is to have the 16 seed games on one channel and at large on another at same time so I don’t have to watch the crap games ever unless I choose to do so.

With 3 games per day at each site, you’ll need to start games before prime time. So I’d assume the 16 seeds would play the early games.

 

[Cyclonepride]

This is unnecessary. But I wonder how much schools were in support of this for the additional revenue to cover revenue sharing of athletes?

My guess is that this is 90% of the reason for expanding now.

 

[Cy4All]

As hard as the article was trying to get the point across that this was not about money, I'm pretty sure this is about money.

 

[buf87]

I heard the NCAA didn't want to hurt anyone's feeling, so everyone is going to get a participation medal

 

[BACyclone]

Hawks should be pleased. Their 18-16 record might just get them in.

All the 'extra' teams getting in will absolutely be P4 'bubble' at-large teams that otherwise were going to the NIT and CIT.

 

[loyalsons4evertrue]

This is just to allow middling P5 teams into the tournament and nothing more....you're a fool if you think this means a possible 2 bid MVC

 

[jdoggivjc]

I guess I'm less bothered by this than most people. As a college basketball fan and March Madness junkie, more games is better and the traditional 64 teams starting on Thursday stays intact so I'm good with it. I can see an argument for it cheapening the regular season a bit for teams on the bubble but it seems fine to me.

I think most of us would be less bothered by this if this was all about getting more mid-major and smaller schools more opportunities, and of course that’s how the NCAA is going to frame this… but anyone with half a brain knows that’s only a side effect, and this is really about making sure teams like Auburn and Indiana have places in the tournament when traditionally they don’t deserve it.

Looking forward to the year either the SEC or Big 10 get all 16 teams in, because that’s what this is really about.

 

[isufbcurt]

You have to be pretty bad now to not make the tourney.

Pretty much a participation trophy now

 

[1UNI2ISU]

Here's the additional 8 at larges that would have made it last year. What a joke.

69. Oklahoma (19-15, 7-11 SEC)
70. Auburn (17-16, 7-11 SEC)
71. San Diego State (22-11, 14-6 Mountain West)
72. Indiana (18-14, 9-11 Big Ten)
73. New Mexico (23-10, 13-7 Mountain West)
74. Seton Hall (21-12, 10-10 Big East)
75. Virginia Tech (19-13, 8-10 ACC)
76. Stanford (20-12, 9-9 ACC)

 

[Cyfan1965]

 

[Freebird]

Stupid.

Also I question the logic of expanding an already super-chalky women's tournament.

Agree. There is such a drop off after the top five or six programs that the first two rounds are pretty pointless already.

 

[ClonesFTW]

I hate that my passion of college athletics continues to decline.

 

[ClonesFTW]

I guess I'm less bothered by this than most people. As a college basketball fan and March Madness junkie, more games is better and the traditional 64 teams starting on Thursday stays intact so I'm good with it. I can see an argument for it cheapening the regular season a bit for teams on the bubble but it seems fine to me.

For me it's not really about the tournament, it's that it devalues games in the regular season.

 

[Clonehomer]

I hate that my passion of college athletics continues to decline.

Agreed. Used to be that I’d put off chores to Sunday to watch CFB. Now, at most I’ll have CFB on in the background and plan my weekend to watch the NFL. CBB is losing out to the NHL more and more. If ISU has a down season, it may be over for me. I just can’t seem to get excited about teams of transfers rather than seeing guys grow from freshmen. I don’t care about paying players, but the transfers around the country are what is really killing it.