ACC wants to expand the tournament to 72 teams

[Pancho 45527]

In the words of my Memaw, "what da fuck is wrong wit yall?"

 

[Patrick Bateman 3944]

2 out of 3 ain't bad???

[Jhawk 1075]

Why the fuck would you ever consider expanding the tournament even further?  If the answer is because of teams like VCU, Loyola, etc.. then maybe what we should look at is eliminating some of the at-large spots traditionally given to the P5 or G5 conferences.  If it is to get teams that only have 17 wins into the tournament then I would say that you are risking it being watered down.  It already almost is watered down.

How about we do this... GET A BETTER SELECTION PROCESS.  Rather than just throw every team in the nation into the field why don't we look at the reasons we can't evaluate each team the right way and correct that first.

Adding more teams just means you have a better chance of ending up with an elite 8, final 4, and championship that no one wants to watch.  I get trying to make the first weekend more exciting but CBS reports dips in viewership of 25-40% when these unknown teams play each other in the later rounds.  Further, the first four games only garner about 2mm viewers so they aren't making it up on the front side.

Edited May 17, 2018 by Jhawk

[Jhawk 1075]

In my mind the quarters thing makes too much sense and these other items don't make sense at all.  One of the biggest reasons there is a difference in the 3 point line (at least what we have been told in the past) is that if college moves it back then high school needs to.  If HS moves it then middle school needs to, and on down the line.  youth leagues and HS are about developing fundamentals.  You don't want kids shooting with bad fundamentals at a young age and when kids physically aren't strong enough to shoot the ball correctly from 23 feet then you are going to have problems and when they do get strong enough you are going to have to rebuild their shot.

The lane widening is just dumb.  I get that the game is trending and has been trending to outside shooters.  But you don't want to kill the big man.

[Colonel Sanders 1387]

I'd rather they go back to 64 and get rid of the first 4.  I'm okay with less at large teams.

[HtownHorn 14940]

I agree with the widening the lane and moving the 3 point line to the international distance. They should also implement defensive 3 seconds in order to clean out the lane and allow more freedom of movement.

[aggie08 21592]

1 hour ago, Colonel Sanders said:

I'd rather they go back to 64 and get rid of the first 4.  I'm okay with less at large teams.

I think it's fucking stupid that they make the worst 16 seeds play in the play-in games. Yes, 14-17 Northwest Community Tech--who put together a completely unexpected conference tournament run--deserves to experience the real dance more than boring ass, underachieving 18-12 Syracuse or whomever. All play-in games--if they insist on keeping them--should only be between the last at-large teams.

[UDontKnow 10507]

I would try to make the changes mimic the professional (NBA) game. I wish the shot clock was lowered to 24 seconds, there were 4 12 minute quarters, and an NBA regulation 3 point line. There's no real need to widen the lane unless the college game adapts illegal defense rules.

[Machinator 32099]

25 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

I think it's fucking stupid that they make the worst 16 seeds play in the play-in games. Yes, 14-17 Northwest Community Tech--who put together a completely unexpected conference tournament run--deserves to experience the real dance more than boring ass, underachieving 18-12 Syracuse or whomever. All play-in games--if they insist on keeping them--should only be between the last at-large teams.

I agree with your sentiment, but I've seen two somewhat compelling arguments to counter that:

1) Teams actually earn units (shares of the NCAA tournament payout) for their conferences by winning First Four games. If I understand this article and this one correctly, It's actually advantageous to be seeds #65-#68 compared to #63 and #64 because you have a much higher chance of appearing in two rounds - First Four and round of 64 - (ignoring the UMBCs of the world) and getting two units.

2) The other big benefit of the NCAA tournament for most of these small schools that don't have a prayer of moving on is the exposure they get by appearing on national TV. The 16 seeds in the First Four games get evening TV slots all to themselves for potential viewers, whereas the 16 seeds that only appear in the round of 64 have to fight three other games that are probably more competitive.

I suppose you could argue that by that logic, all of the First Four games should be 16 seed play-in games, but that would probably result in overall lower viewership of those games because people will just skip turning the TV on those days altogether with the 11 or 12 seed play-in games removed.

Edited May 18, 2018 by Machinator

[MNLonghornFUKM 8918]

really? I heard that 4,096 teams was the goal

 

 

Edited May 18, 2018 by MNLonghornFUKM

[kopp0e 1135]

6 hours ago, Jhawk said:

Why the fuck would you ever consider expanding the tournament even further?  If the answer is because of teams like VCU, Loyola, etc.. then maybe what we should look at is eliminating some of the at-large spots traditionally given to the P5 or G5 conferences.  If it is to get teams that only have 17 wins into the tournament then I would say that you are risking it being watered down.  It already almost is watered down.

How about we do this... GET A BETTER SELECTION PROCESS.  Rather than just throw every team in the nation into the field why don't we look at the reasons we can't evaluate each team the right way and correct that first.

Adding more teams just means you have a better chance of ending up with an elite 8, final 4, and championship that no one wants to watch.  I get trying to make the first weekend more exciting but CBS reports dips in viewership of 25-40% when these unknown teams play each other in the later rounds.  Further, the first four games only garner about 2mm viewers so they aren't making it up on the front side.

The college sports arm that funds most of NCAA: "Let's try a 72 team playoff"... The college sports arm that's nearly autonomous of NCAA: "A 4 team playoff is good"...

[freyguy 4334]

...

Edited June 9 by freyguy