A week into the tournament, I’ve had more of an opportunity to think about where the tournament is headed, and why the world enjoys the current bracket setup as much as they do. I’ve also come to the conclusion that my style on progress is exactly inbetween technology and tradition. You never mess with a good thing, but you use things you never had before to make it better.
This leads us into the latest talk of the tournament moving to 96 teams. I hated it when I first heard it, I hate it more right now after having seen a tremendous first two rounds. If you went to 96 teams, you wouldn’t have seen any of the drama you did, and if you saw upsets, they would be so much less compelling.
First of all, at the number it stands at now, the tournament is truly one of champions. You either get in by winning a conference tournament, sans the Ivy League (and they don’t mind, see Cornell), or by being a top team who in almost every case has a winning conference record. The move to 96 is unquestionably one to get more big conference big name teams in the mix, and it would take one look at the NIT to see some of the teams who would have made it. North Carolina at .500 overall?! UConn at 7-11 in the Big East? These are teams that do not deserve a shot at the title, and if they qualified, would be facing these smaller conference champions. If the small conference team wins (say, Ohio?), it’s so much less impressive. If the big team wins, it creates forgettable matchups. Trust me when I say that the big schools will get the 9-16 seeds, the small conference winners will still be at the bottom barrel.
The NIT is an appropriate place for these teams, especially considering that they reward any regular season conference champion with a post season trip. Good for them for doing this.
Maybe in my next post I’ll lay out what I think would have happened with Ohio if the tournament was 96 teams big. We’ll see.
The other reason we know the move wants to happen is for a money grab, and from the sounds of it, a chance to redo a TV contract to get another billion dollars. Did we mention the NCAA is a non-profit? They might get a little bit more short term, but with the charm of the tournament severely damaged, the tournament would not draw more money long term. I do not believe it’s worth it.
The last reason is one that sports pundits can talk about, and one that the NCAA profits from what will never completely acknowledge: gambling! Brackets are typically legal, even when money is pooled, and Vegas sports books are as good as anyone as policing the sport, even if the NCAA hates it. Can you imagine filling out a 96 team bracket?! How many people who casually follow the tournament because they could pick that cool upset would just stop caring? Tons, and that is a lot of sponsorship money down the toilet from sites who want in on the coverage, and from sponsors who support the NCAA greatly. This type of gambling absolutely matters to the NCAA, even if they would never admit it, and this would be dimished in a 96-team field.
I want to watch a tournament of great teams and winners, not a tornament of ho-hum and very good. I want to have fun watching the underdog get to play the big guy, I want those Northern Iowa moments, I want Cornell to play the best, not some has been under-500 conference team. I hope every year we get a team like Davidson was last year. 96-team tournaments lose too much of that, and the game will suffer.
NCAA Tournament: The Sweet 65, not the Horrid 96!
A week into the tournament, I’ve had more of an opportunity to think about where the tournament is headed, and why the world enjoys the current bracket setup as much as they do. I’ve also come to the conclusion that my style on progress is exactly inbetween technology and tradition. You never mess with a good thing, but you use things you never had before to make it better.
This leads us into the latest talk of the tournament moving to 96 teams. I hated it when I first heard it, I hate it more right now after having seen a tremendous first two rounds. If you went to 96 teams, you wouldn’t have seen any of the drama you did, and if you saw upsets, they would be so much less compelling.
First of all, at the number it stands at now, the tournament is truly one of champions. You either get in by winning a conference tournament, sans the Ivy League (and they don’t mind, see Cornell), or by being a top team who in almost every case has a winning conference record. The move to 96 is unquestionably one to get more big conference big name teams in the mix, and it would take one look at the NIT to see some of the teams who would have made it. North Carolina at .500 overall?! UConn at 7-11 in the Big East? These are teams that do not deserve a shot at the title, and if they qualified, would be facing these smaller conference champions. If the small conference team wins (say, Ohio?), it’s so much less impressive. If the big team wins, it creates forgettable matchups. Trust me when I say that the big schools will get the 9-16 seeds, the small conference winners will still be at the bottom barrel.
The NIT is an appropriate place for these teams, especially considering that they reward any regular season conference champion with a post season trip. Good for them for doing this.
Maybe in my next post I’ll lay out what I think would have happened with Ohio if the tournament was 96 teams big. We’ll see.
The other reason we know the move wants to happen is for a money grab, and from the sounds of it, a chance to redo a TV contract to get another billion dollars. Did we mention the NCAA is a non-profit? They might get a little bit more short term, but with the charm of the tournament severely damaged, the tournament would not draw more money long term. I do not believe it’s worth it.
The last reason is one that sports pundits can talk about, and one that the NCAA profits from what will never completely acknowledge: gambling! Brackets are typically legal, even when money is pooled, and Vegas sports books are as good as anyone as policing the sport, even if the NCAA hates it. Can you imagine filling out a 96 team bracket?! How many people who casually follow the tournament because they could pick that cool upset would just stop caring? Tons, and that is a lot of sponsorship money down the toilet from sites who want in on the coverage, and from sponsors who support the NCAA greatly. This type of gambling absolutely matters to the NCAA, even if they would never admit it, and this would be dimished in a 96-team field.
I want to watch a tournament of great teams and winners, not a tornament of ho-hum and very good. I want to have fun watching the underdog get to play the big guy, I want those Northern Iowa moments, I want Cornell to play the best, not some has been under-500 conference team. I hope every year we get a team like Davidson was last year. 96-team tournaments lose too much of that, and the game will suffer.