If some is good, then more is better . . . right?Well, the NCAA has recently played with the idea of expanding their prestigious men’s basketball tournament.
The proposed change would call for 96 teams in March Madness, a shift that would supposedly give more student-athletes the NCAA experience while also balancing out Cinderella stories, on-the-bubble teams and the perennial heavyweights.
The crazy thing is that some people might get wrapped up in that warm, fuzzy feeling that the NCAA is trying to sell you. The fact of the matter is that mid-major schools are playing better than mid-range, and it has turned the 64-team field upside down.
In 2008, it was the beloved Davidson College Wildcats led by Steph Curry. This year it was Ali Farokhmanesh and the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) Panthers.
Wait . . . who?
Granted, Kansas probably beats UNI 99 times out of 100, but they didn’t on March 20 – that’s the beauty of March Madness. It only takes one.
The expansion works to bail out the traditional powerhouse programs because every year (insert name here) University is stunned when a smaller school forces the Goliath to bow out early. Instead of expanding the field to account for mid-major upsets, the NCAA should keep the additional middle-of-the-road Bowl Championship Series (BCS) schools out of the tournament.
The University of Dayton, this year’s National Invitation Tournament (NIT) champion, was among the first teams left out of the “real” tournament three weeks ago. The Flyers proceeded to blow past what was left over from Selection Sunday with ease, grabbing wins from the Big East Conference, Big Ten Conference, Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference, including the defending national champions, the North Carolina Tar Heels.
With the win, the Dayton Flyers improved to 11-4 against BCS opponents in the last four years.
Meanwhile, power conferences keep sending record numbers of teams to be upset early and often. What the NCAA is doing is making excuses and trying to maneuver around the BCS’s early exits when they should be praising the true winners.
If expanded, the NCAA will have successfully taken its tournament to new heights. More teams means more games, and more games translates directly into dollar signs. The cash cow that is March Madness has already landed the notorious non-profit just over four billion dollars, and who knows what a marketing guru could do with 96 teams.
The truth is men’s college basketball is hardly amateur anymore. It is a business now more than ever, and the NCAA is finally treating its baby accordingly.
I say forget the one-and-dones, the powerhouse programs and the John Wall Dance, and let the tournament come alive with drama.
Haters unite against expansion. Let deserving teams dance and may the best team win.