There has been plenty of talk lately about expanding the NCAA Basketball tournament to 96 teams. Which would give the NCAA more money, that is truely the reason for doing this, no to give more teams a chance.Some people are reporting that it is a done deal and that they just have to work out the specifics. That means that we need to get to the bottom of “is this a good idea.” The only true argument that there is against this is, why would you change something that is almost perfect already. I agree with that argument and I want to go a little bit deeper into it. The thing is the regular season is already pretty useless and now expanding only makes the NCAA look like they are going after more money and that is an extremely wrong reason to do so.

But, lets not forget that there are two ideas for expansion 68 or 96. I am actually all for the 68 team tournament. An argument that I have here as of late is that people don’t like the expansion and this would cause the tournament to lose popularity, wrong. You can put as many teams as you want in the tournament and the one driving force behind the tournament’s popularity will still be there, office pools. Who doesn’t like filling out a bracket, almost everyone fills one out even you pick the teams by their mascot. I don’t think it will lose much of its viewers.

The real problem with this proposal is how deluded the talent will become when the selection committee has to pick 96 teams.  In the setup now they have to choose 34 teams after the automatic bids if they expand it they will have to choose 65 teams. This would almost take out the meaning of RPI. The first round match ups will be far less competitive because the 9th seed will play the 24th seed instead of a close match up with the 8th seed.  ‘

Even the Cinderella would be gone. I know that people love the Cinderella even though it usually doesn’t go far, people enjoy the underdog. This would almost get rid of the story because they will have to ride the lucky streak for a lot longer. The best teams in the tournament will also get a first round bye which will move them farther down the bracket.

The one thing that makes the NCAA one of the biggest cartels in the world is simply two words “Student Athlete”. Extending the tournament will mean more games on weekdays and less time in the classroom, hypocrites. If they truly are student athletes they would need to be in class not playing  a game.

I am all for making it 68 team tournament but if they even dare make it a 96 team tournament I would be angry, but not angry enough to boycott such a sports entertainment spectacle.