NCAA

[A123]

If NCAA put 72 teams in tourney and 8 regions is it good or bad

What da all u think

[Seadragon76]

Uh, bad idea.

Look, 65 is just fine for all of us. If they kept adding teams to the NCAA Tourny, it would make the NIT look rather pointless because of the extra teams in the tourny that got in with your idea.

[leafs13]

In what sport? Basketball? How would that work? 9 teams per region?

[leopard88]

In what sport? Basketball? How would that work? 9 teams per region?

9 does seem awkward, plus you would have to have regional champs meet to determine the Final Four.

72 is divisible by 4 too, so you could keep 4 regions of 18. You would just have 2 play-ins per region, with the winners becoming 15 and 16 seeds.

It isn't unworkable, but it might further dilute the field. I would actually prefer going back to 64 since the symmetry is so perfect, as opposed to expanding again.

[VitaminD]

What is the rationale for doing this?

72 isn't a square of 2 the way 32 or 64 are, so adding 8 teams would give some teams byes while others didn't get them. You can get away with unequal byes in conference tournaments because schools in the same conference all played each other. But in the NCAAs, seeding is done by collective opinion, and to give some teams a bye that other teams don't get by virtue of those collective opinions rather than seeding by standings sets the potential for more problems. As it is now, 65 is practically 64, and it only takes one game to return the field to 64 and the harmony that a square of 2 carries with it.

The most common rationale for adding teams is because "it would mean fewer teams get shafted by not getting at-large bids". But it doesn't - all it does is shift the focus of bubble teams from #66 down to #73. There will always be a "last team in", and a "best team left out". This is one of the stumbling points in those who dislike the BCS and would prefer a college football tournament. How many teams qualify: 4? 8? 16? There's always going to be that 5th/9th/17th team left on the outside looking in. A tournament doesn't have to be all-inclusive to be fair.

The only way to expand the NCAA tournament would be a doubling, and 128 teams is an asinine number of teams for a tournament, since 3 or 4 teams of the next 64 AT MOST have a prayer of even reaching the Sweet 16. It's all yelling and screaming over nothing.