Friday, February 19, 2010

How I would fix the NCAA Tournament




Hi! I'm back after one long week in Atlanta doing the World Cup preview for CNN. Long days, even longer hours, but it was all worth it. I won't divulge any more details about it, you will have to watch the show to find out. No air date was confirmed yet, but I will post it on here as soon as I find out.

Getting to the topic at hand, the NCAA Tournament is great, but it has one major flaw. Too many crappy teams make it to the big dance because they win their crappy conference tournaments. In the meantime, more competitive teams like UConn and Ole Miss get left out.

What I would do is, based on the results of the previous year, set a standard number of bids for each conference for the season.

For example, let's say the Big Ten has two teams in the Final Four this year. In that case, they would automatically get the most bids for next year since they were the best conference.
On the other hand, if a team like Chattanooga from the C-12 Conference loses by 35 to Duke in the first round, its conference automatically gets only one bid, regardless of what happens on its conference tournament.

It's not about equal opportunity for everyone, the NCAA Tournament should be about fielding the best 64 teams on the court.

Thoughts? Comments?

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