Maybe it's because we've covered too many NIT games that no one wants to play. Maybe it's because we've covered enough NCAA Tournament games to appreciate the best event in sports. Maybe we see too many games and know too many players and coaches who'd experience the pinnacle of their athletic careers if they were fortunate enough to play in just one NCAA Tournament.
That's why I'm in favor of expanding the NCAA Tournament. That statement clearly puts me on an island, especially among my media brethren who understandably do not want the Lords of College Sports to tinker with such a valued piece of our American sporting life. But, please. Let's chill a bit here.
The changes the NCAA is now weighing aren't large ones. According to an RFP (Request for Proposal) that the NCAA is circulating to potential new TV partners, the tournament could expand from 65 teams to either 68 or 96 if the NCAA chooses to opt out of its current TV deal with CBS. A 68-team field would add a few extra "play-in" games to the current format, and a 96-team field would in effect swallow up the NIT's 32-team field.
Pushing the field out to 68 is a no-brainer. Blowing up the NIT (which probably will not happen, but should) in the name of expansion is what they call in combat "collateral damage," and we're all for it.
In a matter of a day or two of tournament games, the field would return to the more-traditional numbers we know and love. As far as devaluing the sport, we're not talking the NBA or the NHL, where any team with a pulse tastes the postseason. With 347 Division I schools, 18 percent currently get into the NCAA Tournament. That's far below the number of teams that play in hideous football bowl games: 68 of 120 teams, or 56 percent; the 53 percent of NBA/NHL teams that reach the playoffs; 37 percent in the NFL and 26 percent in baseball.
We love it when people say expansion would ruin the regular season. You mean kind of like major league baseball, where the Red Sox and Yankees play each other 19 times but the only games that truly mean something come in October?
Spare us the comparisons with college football, too. You lose a game or two in the fall and you cannot play for the national title because of the machinations of the BCS. You lose 10 games in college hoop today and you can make the NCAA tourney and become a champion. So going forward, what's so different if you lose a dozen games and still earn that NCAA invite?
A few key guidelines need to be followed. First, regular-season conference champions from all conferences get a bid. So do the conference tourney champs, keeping those end-of-season money grabs worthwhile. Also, teams with overall losing records aren't allowed in. But there will be no caps on the number of teams from a given conference, no minimum number of wins, etc. It'll be easy, not hard, to find another 32 deserving teams.
Why do we think bigger is better? Why will a "watered-down" event be better than it is now? Opportunity. Think of Jimmy Baron. Think of Geoff McDermott. They both played on good teams the last couple of years at Rhode Island and Providence, respectively. Not great teams, not teams that could roll to a Final Four or win a national title, but teams that could certainly win a game (or two) in the NCAA tourney. Adding teams like that would truly make the NCAAs a national tournament, spreading the buzz and excitement that is reserved for places like Lawrence, Kan.; Lansing, Mich.; and Chapel Hill, N.C. (oops, maybe not this year); to even more small towns and big cities.
"The magnitude of the NCAA Tournament now is so big that it's just a great experience for a kid to have that opportunity to play," Maryland coach Gary Williams said last week. "Most guys in college don't go on to play professionally, so if you can say you played in the NCAA Tournament, that really kind of changes your career as a college basketball player."
Williams is one of many coaches who favor expansion. That's no shock. If this happens, many more jobs will be saved and that's probably a good thing for all involved. But this isn't about the coaches. It's also not about the fans or your office brackets, betting all the first-round games or planning a Final Four party. It's about the players and the students, the alums and the passion that with a tweak or two will truly spread from coast to coast.
The guess here is that even with those changes, you'll still check the games out.
(Contact Kevin McNamara at kmcnamara(at)projo.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit The Providence Journal
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