Widening the floor for the Big Dance?
In basketball, the NCAA has a popular postseason tournament, certainly the highlight of the season.
In football, its postseason is rife with controversy, with most fans and a lot of coaches favoring a change.
So of course the NCAA is only looking to change the postseason that everyone likes.
There’s been discussion lately of expanding the NCAA tournament to 96 teams, from its present form of 65 teams. The idea is being talked about with television networks, including CBS (which holds the tournament rights) and ESPN (which is trying to get them).
A lot of people, like me, like the tournament the way it is, and in fact wouldn’t mind getting rid of the play-in game and getting back down to 64 teams. It seems like the perfect number, and makes earning a tournament berth a real accomplishment.
But others think the field should be expanded because college basketball has gotten so much deeper. Some coaches, possibly motivated by job security, think they shouldn’t stop at 96. Maryland coach Gary Williams has advocated for years for letting EVERY team in the tournament.
And of course another weekend of games would be great for CBS and/or ESPN, and thus more money in the NCAA’s pockets.
South Carolina coach Darrin Horn, when asked this week, said he hadn’t thought too much about it. But he didn’t sound crazy about the idea, even if it would have allowed his team in last season.
“You would like to think in theory the more teams that can get in the better chance you have of getting in, which would be good,” Horn said. “But it’s a pretty good model right now, as is. I don’t know, I hate to sound … unversed on (the topic) but that’s not really something I’ve given a lot of thought.”
4 Comments to “Widening the floor for the Big Dance?”
Leave a Reply
State newspaper sports writer Seth Emerson blogs on University of South Carolina basketball and baseball.
[...] using their biggest receivers (Alshon Jeffery and Tori Gurley) on the field at the same time?18. Darrin Horn doesn’t have strong feelings about talk of expanding the NCAA Tournament.19. Vandy news, Vandy news. Let’s see. Is [...]
“makes earning a tournament berth a real accomplishment.” Perfectly written!!! Teams have to win thoughout the seasodn in order to insure an at-large bid and thats how it should remain. The pressure for schools (like USC) to win big out of conference games early in the season only improves the caliber of players and coaches. It prepares them for the stretch run. Adding teams will no doubt nullify the importance of the regular season specifically non-conference games.
On ESPN Mike and Mike radio show they talked about how a lot of casual NBA and college basketball fans already don’t watch regular season basketball games until tournament time because individual games are pretty meaningless as long as teams make the tournament. Bumping it up to 96 teams will make it more so. This is one reason I don’t want more than a plus one playoff for football because in football every single game is important. Football is a game of survival where running a gauntlet of games causes injuries to key players along the way much more so than basketball.
It might be the only way we will make it back to the dance. If we dont make it this year I cant se the year in the future were we will.