Did We Ask For This?

Out of the blue last week, the NCAA announced that the men’s and women’s March Madness Tournament would be expanding to 76 teams.

My first thought was why is the expansion needed and who asked for it? As I write this, I am still wondering. I find it unnecessary.

I know I am not clamoring to see a team near the .500 mark making the NCAA Tournament. It will happen. I read a report that if this past year’s tourney had 76 schools in it there would have been multiple .500 teams gaining berths.

Nobody was clamoring to see a .500 team from a major conference making the tournament.

In the new expanded tournament, the first two days of the tournament would look drastically different. On that Tuesday and Wednesday, there would be 12 games played between 24 teams due to the eight added at-large bids. The games would be played at two different sites.

I have to ask the questions. Should a team that finished with a 15 – 15 record be rewarded with a bid to the national tournament? Why? All this does is demean the regular season. You can lose half your games and still have a chance to play for a national title. Saying that, we all know that only a dozen schools truly have a shot at winning March Madness.

Ahhhhh. I just figured it out. Of course. The coaches have to like it. Now they can lobby to keep their jobs because they made the NCAA Tournament. Coaches usually get fired if they do not make the tourney.

It just got easier to do just that.