Quote:ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas blasted the NCAA on Saturday, days after its president, Charlie Baker, said the organization’s basketball committee is discussing the possibility of expanding the men’s NCAA tournament.

While on the set of ESPN’s College GameDay before No. 1 UConn played host to Villanova, Bilas gave the NCAA a piece of his mind. He particularly took a shot at Baker’s idea of “expanding access” to more teams. Baker had raised the idea of an expanded field in a wide-ranging video with ESPN’s Dan Murphy that was posted Friday.

“Never underestimate the NCAA’s capacity to do something stupid,” Bilas said. “And, if they did this, it would be profoundly stupid. When anyone says more teams need access to the tournament: every team has the same access to the tournament now. All you have to do is win your conference automatic bid, which is against your peers with a group of teams you have chosen to be among.”

Bilas emphasized the fact that every Division I team has a chance to reach the tournament and scoffed at the idea of expanding the field from 68 teams to an absurd 96. The home crowd’s cheers at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn., made it clear that Huskies fans agree with Bilas.

“The one thing that everybody’s forgetting is this is not an access tournament. It’s a national championship event,” Bilas said. “You should have to do something hard to get in.”

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If that's his argument, then we should only allow conference tourney Champs into the national tourney. Let's see how his cartel friends like that.

In the 1980s when it expanded to 64 teams, there were far fewer D1 teams. There's been a significant increase in the number of D1 teams since then and only expanded to 68. In essence, the cartels get more money and more chance and everyone else gets less and less chance. The tourney is about money for the cartel, sadly.

Next thing the P2 will push for is automatic bids to the tournament.

B1G 14
SEC 12
XII 8
ACC 8
BE 4

All remaining 26 conferences can split 1 bid for the highest rated team.

(02-29-2024 06:35 PM)Garden_KC Wrote:  Next thing the P2 will push for is automatic bids to the tournament.

B1G 14
SEC 12
XII 8
ACC 8
BE 4

All remaining 26 conferences can split 1 bid for the highest rated team.

...and that would still be "access" as Jay Bilas describes it!

There are now 362 division 1 schools and only 68 get bids to the NCAA Tournament. That is only 18.8% of the teams. There are 134 FBS programs in college football. Granted only 12 now can play for a national championship but 86 teams get to go to bowl games each year. There are 32 NFL teams and 14 teams get into the playoffs. There 30 teams in the NBA and 20 teams are in the playoffs. There are 30 team in the MLB and 14 teams are in the playoffs. The percentages indicate the NCAA Tournament could stand to grow to 96 teams and it would still be an exclusive honor to get a bid... at least for the mid-majors.

(03-01-2024 07:28 PM)NMSUPistolPete Wrote:  The are now 362 division 1 schools and only 68 get bids to the NCAA Tournament. That is only 18.8% of the teams. There are 134 FBS programs in college football. Granted only 12 now can play for a national championship but 86 teams get to bowl games each year. There are 32 NFL teams and 14 teams get into the playoffs. There 30 teams in the NBA and 20 teams are in the playoffs. There are 30 team in the MLB and 14 teams are in the playoffs. The percentages indicate the NCAA Tournament could stand to grow to 96 teams and it would still be an exclusive honor to get a bid... atleast for the mid-majors.

The NCAA tournament should have 362 teams in it. Why not? Now, many of those games would be play-in games for the lower seeds, leading up to 96 teams. Higher seeds get byes, for about a week+ while the lower seeds are going from 266 down to 33. Then those 33 join the other 63, all sitting on the byes, for the 96-team tourney, again seeded accordingly.

Dumb? Yeah, probably!

I guess the lobbyist from the Cartel are whispering sweet nothings to the Ncaa boss. It's a given that the teams that would be invited are from the Cartel even if they don't deserve it and get in mainly because of conference and name. The reason I say this is because every year these teams get into the Dance and get throw out by non-Cartel teams but nonetheless these Cartels still get money. Not a bad gig I say. I say leave it at that unless they put it in writing that non-Cartel schools get more representation in the Dance.

Jay Bilas obviously doesn’t cheer for a school who wins 20 games almost every season but hasnt made the NCAA Tournament in their lifetime.

(03-01-2024 07:28 PM)NMSUPistolPete Wrote:  There are now 362 division 1 schools and only 68 get bids to the NCAA Tournament. That is only 18.8% of the teams. There are 134 FBS programs in college football. Granted only 12 now can play for a national championship but 86 teams get to go to bowl games each year. There are 32 NFL teams and 14 teams get into the playoffs. There 30 teams in the NBA and 20 teams are in the playoffs. There are 30 team in the MLB and 14 teams are in the playoffs. The percentages indicate the NCAA Tournament could stand to grow to 96 teams and it would still be an exclusive honor to get a bid... at least for the mid-majors.

The problem is that any expansion would just be a way to get more P6 teams in. When the tourney was expanded to 68, it was because the P6 cried that there were too many autobids and the P6 needed to get more teams in. If we expanded to 96 with the intent to include any and all deserving teams, especially the 25-5 mid-majors that are now excluded, then I would be all for it.

(03-04-2024 04:04 PM)PojoaquePosse Wrote:  

(03-01-2024 07:28 PM)NMSUPistolPete Wrote:  There are now 362 division 1 schools and only 68 get bids to the NCAA Tournament. That is only 18.8% of the teams. There are 134 FBS programs in college football. Granted only 12 now can play for a national championship but 86 teams get to go to bowl games each year. There are 32 NFL teams and 14 teams get into the playoffs. There 30 teams in the NBA and 20 teams are in the playoffs. There are 30 team in the MLB and 14 teams are in the playoffs. The percentages indicate the NCAA Tournament could stand to grow to 96 teams and it would still be an exclusive honor to get a bid... at least for the mid-majors.

The problem is that any expansion would just be a way to get more P6 teams in. When the tourney was expanded to 68, it was because the P6 cried that there were too many autobids and the P6 needed to get more teams in. If we expanded to 96 with the intent to include any and all deserving teams, especially the 25-5 mid-majors that are now excluded, then I would be all for it.

Agree!

(03-04-2024 04:04 PM)PojoaquePosse Wrote:  

(03-01-2024 07:28 PM)NMSUPistolPete Wrote:  There are now 362 division 1 schools and only 68 get bids to the NCAA Tournament. That is only 18.8% of the teams. There are 134 FBS programs in college football. Granted only 12 now can play for a national championship but 86 teams get to go to bowl games each year. There are 32 NFL teams and 14 teams get into the playoffs. There 30 teams in the NBA and 20 teams are in the playoffs. There are 30 team in the MLB and 14 teams are in the playoffs. The percentages indicate the NCAA Tournament could stand to grow to 96 teams and it would still be an exclusive honor to get a bid... at least for the mid-majors.

The problem is that any expansion would just be a way to get more P6 teams in. When the tourney was expanded to 68, it was because the P6 cried that there were too many autobids and the P6 needed to get more teams in. If we expanded to 96 with the intent to include any and all deserving teams, especially the 25-5 mid-majors that are now excluded, then I would be all for it.

Obviously unless it benefits the mid-majors it's not worth doing.

I always hated the "Bracket Buster". In my mind a true bracket buster should have matched up a top mid-major (near the top of their conference) against a P6 school (in the middle of the pack) on the cusp of an at-large bit. That would define the strength of each school in relations to each conference. But none of the P6 schools wanted to participate the bracket buster, leaving the top mid-majors knocking each other off for the sole purposes of the selection committee eliminating mid-majors from the bubble.

I also hate it when the NCAA selection committee matches up two top mid-majors against each other in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. I always want a mid-major to have a chance at eliminating a P6 school. The one drawback of going to 96 teams could be just that, two mid-majors playing each other. The selection committee could give all the P5 schools (now) a bye and have the few mid-major champions fight it out for the privilege to play a top 32 Power 5 programs in the second round. SO, yes unless the expansion to 96 (28 more teams) include at least 14 or more at-large mid-majors to the field, it is not worth doing. We don't need to fill the P5 pockets even further if it doesn't benefit the mid-majors as well.

One benefit to the NCAA tournament expansion could return the NIT back to its original rules. But then again it could mean every P5 program would be in either the NCAA tournament or NIT.

(03-01-2024 07:47 PM)Tech80 Wrote:  

(03-01-2024 07:28 PM)NMSUPistolPete Wrote:  The are now 362 division 1 schools and only 68 get bids to the NCAA Tournament. That is only 18.8% of the teams. There are 134 FBS programs in college football. Granted only 12 now can play for a national championship but 86 teams get to bowl games each year. There are 32 NFL teams and 14 teams get into the playoffs. There 30 teams in the NBA and 20 teams are in the playoffs. There are 30 team in the MLB and 14 teams are in the playoffs. The percentages indicate the NCAA Tournament could stand to grow to 96 teams and it would still be an exclusive honor to get a bid... atleast for the mid-majors.

The NCAA tournament should have 362 teams in it. Why not? Now, many of those games would be play-in games for the lower seeds, leading up to 96 teams. Higher seeds get byes, for about a week+ while the lower seeds are going from 266 down to 33. Then those 33 join the other 63, all sitting on the byes, for the 96-team tourney, again seeded accordingly.

Dumb? Yeah, probably!

All 362 teams have a chance to make NCAA tournament now. NCAA tournament needs to be left how it is. Dumb to change anything. These conference tournaments are essentially play ins for tournament. EKU 1 seed already out Day 1, THIS IS MARCH!!!