Quote: Originally Posted By metsmax on 3/23/2010
you put the tuesday game in whichever slot is the last at large slot in a certain region - the lowest at large - whether or not there are higher automatic bids in that region

SO, if the lowest in the East is a 12, in the South a 12, in the West a 12 and in the Midwest a 13, then the 4 Put op or Shut up Tuesday games are for those slots

Quote: Originally Posted By plane129 on 3/23/2010

Quote: Originally Posted By metsmax on 3/23/2010

you put the tuesday game in whichever slot is the last at large slot in a certain region - the lowest at large - whether or not there are higher automatic bids in that region

SO, if the lowest in the East is a 12, in the South a 12, in the West a 12 and in the Midwest a 13, then the 4 Put op or Shut up Tuesday games are for those slots

The only drawback is that you can't face a fellow conference team until the Elite Eight. You also can't meet a team you played in last year's tournament in the first round. And I think you can't have a rematch with a non-conference foe until the 2nd or 3rd round.

Of course, if there are 13 Big East teams in the NT, they may have to change those rules

Quote: Originally Posted By indiansrck27 on 3/23/2010
How would it work? Wont there have to be team with byes?

Quote: Originally Posted By metsmax on 3/23/2010

96 is too much - 68 will work fine - see thread on 68

http://www.whatifsports.com/forums/threads.asp?ForumID=30&TopicID=409353&PagePosition=3

Lots of discussion of going to 96 teams - basically tomake more money with another round of games to televise. But, the argument is well made that this would put a lot of teams into the Dance that truly did not excel by any measure.

Still, is the current 65 teams the right answer?

No - the better answer is a 68 team tournament and here is how it works

Seed the at large and automatic bids, but the lowest AT LARGE slot in each gets two teams - it would be slots 12A and 12B or 13A and 13B however it works out

Get rid of the annoying playin game between the bottom two automatics - and instead we have four games on Tuesday - Play In Tuesday.....or Last Chance Tuesday....or whatever. The teams that would otherwise be the last four in and the last four out play each other to decide who gets in - a competitive solution.

Matchups might be something like

Minn v Miss State

Utah State v Illinois

Florida v Va Tech

Wake v Seton Hall

An afternoon and evening of great tv, but just the 8 teams at the margin.

68 is the answer

Quote: Originally Posted By evil_twin on 3/23/2010There's only one way to do this.....all 347 Division 1 teams are in the Big Dance. The conference tournaments are eliminated. The nation watches in awe at that first round Eastern Washington vs. The Citadel matchup

Quote: Originally Posted By gbous314 on 3/23/2010Coach Ryan and Coach Boeheim are big supporters of expansion. See Boeheim's interview with ESPN. I still stand by the fact that the tourney has expanded ten times and you all have no real basis to say that this wouldn't work since history has shown the exact opposite multiple times. Just because more people and more mid-major schools would profit is not a good reason not to expand. I would say it is even better to allow more student athletes to participate, considering only 65 out of the 365 get in.

Then why stop at 96? Why not 128 or 256? It's pretty simple really, if these student athletes want to participate in the tournament with a chance to win a championship then they have two choices: win their conference tournament and get the automatic bid, or win enough damn games in the regular season to get selected as an at-large. If they can't do either of those, then screw 'em, they shouldn't be in the dance.

Quote: Originally Posted By gbousley314 on 3/23/2010
I mean, the only argument I see is that there is this idea that we don't let more teams in because it's a "sissy way of doing things". If it's better for everyone involved, why not do it? You can frame it saying it's all about money or whatever, but I have history on my side saying that the tournament has expanded 10 times. I don't think less people have started watching the tournament due to any of those expansions. Just a thought guys.



Of course more people are watching the tourney now as opposed to before. The media coverage now is exponentially greater now that it was even 20 years ago. Invalid point.......