NCAA Basketball Tournament Expansion

     Usually when I write these things, I run it by a few sports fan friends of mine before I publish it.  I did this with my friend Steven before I wrote this article, and it lead to an hour long argument.  Keep in mind, Steven and I were both Communication Studies majors in college, so in our eight years of knowing each other, neither of us have ever admitted defeat in an argument to the other. 

     It's almost NCAA tourney time.  Time to get out your brackets, which is arguably the best "fantasy sport" ever.  Recently, there have been discussions about expanding the tournament field, currently at 68 teams, to 96 teams.  For a long time, I thought this idea was silly.  96 is too many, I said.  Actually, I thought 68 was too many.  I didn't really know why I thought that.  I guess I just heard 96, and in my mind I was used to 64, I liked 64, and 96 is nowhere close to 64.  I follow a college basketball team that recently has been on the tournament bubble often, meaning at the end of the season, they are very close to whether or not they will be chosen to play in the tournament.  But the reason I have started to turn to a 96 team tournament is not about my team, but about Virginia Tech.

     For the record, I do not like Virginia Tech sports.  I especially hate Virginia Tech football, for the same reason I don't like a lot of the teams that I don't like, which is that they had a moment when all of the sudden, everyone and their mothers decided that they have been fans of this team their whole life.  The Boston Red Sox are a team I also do not like for the same reason.  Around 2003, everyone was a Red Sox fan all of the sudden, because they could see the Red Sox were about to break their near 100-year streak of losing the World Series.  All of the sudden, people kept popping up, saying they have been Red Sox fans forever!  No you haven't.  You hopped on the bandwagon when Johnny Damon and Kevin Millar joined the team, and pretended to be a part of an 80-year long struggle.  If you don't know who Mike Greenwell is, you are a phony.

     The Virginia Tech magic moment revolved around Michael Vick.  Michael Vick was the most exciting football player in college football history.  You could not plan for Michael Vick.  He did what he wanted, and teams had no choice but to let it happen.  All of the sudden, everyone is a Virginia Tech fan.  Am I making this up in my head?  Impossible, because suddenly applications for Virginia Tech went through the roof over night.  Virginia Tech was a safety school, and Michael Vick rolls around, and it's one of the hardest schools in the state to get into.

     So, I hope I have proved my point that I promise I do not like Virginia Tech, so here is my actual point of this article.  Usually 20 wins in a good conference gets you a spot in the NCAA tournament.  Virginia Tech finished the season 23-8 in the ACC, arguably the toughest basketball conference year-in year-out.  Sometimes teams get left out because they have a losing record in conference play.  The Hokies finished 10-7 in the ACC by selection day.  Sometimes teams get left out because they didn't beat any good opponents.  The Hokies beat Miami and Wake Forest when they were both ranked in the top 25, and also North Carolina's team full of All-Americans, even if they were in a down year.  Sometimes teams get left out of the tourney because they have a losing record in their last 10 games.  The Hokies finished 6-4 in their last 10 games.  The Hokies however, were not invited to the NCAA tournament.

     The Hokies would not have won the NCAA tournament that year, but they earned the right to play in the tournament.  They deserved the right to try to make the Sweet 16.  They were not given this opportunity, but do you know who was?  The University of Arkansas Pine-Bluff Golden Lions.  The Golden Lions didn't win 23 games that season.  They didn't beat any top 25 teams either.  They started the season 0-11.  But the Golden Lions won the SWAC conference tournament by beating such college basketball powerhouses as Mississippi Valley State, Alabama State, and Texas Southern.  I don't even know what SWAC stands for, and I refuse to find out. 

     Each year when the NCAA tournament selection committee is selecting teams, their mission statement is to choose the best 64, or 65, or 68 teams to play in the tournament, depending on the year.  Conference tournament champions are guaranteed to make the tournament however, so UAPB made the tournament even after a 17-15 record in one of the worst conferences in Division I basketball.  I don't care how you spin it, UAPB did not deserve to play for the NCAA Championship more than Virginia Tech.  If you include these automatic bids to the tournament, there is no way the best 68 teams will ever play in the tournament.  If you include 96 teams, I think you can make a much better argument that the best 96 teams are playing.  I would rather some of these lesser conferences lose their automatic entry into the tournament, but knowing that is unlikely, I think a 96-team field is a better compromise.  Let teams like Virginia Tech get their chance to make a sweet 16, even if they never had a realistic shot to win the championship.

     A 96-team tournament would include an extra weekend of March Madness, more money for the TV stations, and if you correctly pick all the games in a 96-team bracket, than you are some sort of crazy sports genius, even though we all know the old lady in the office picking her winners based on the mascots always seems to win the office pool.  I don't expect a lot of support on this argument, but if I can get one person to change their mind on this one, I'll consider this post a success.  Write me a comment if I've showed you the light, or also if you think I've finally lost it.