72 or 76 team NCAA tournament.....NCAA determined to ruin one of the best things in sports.

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MNVCGUY

MNVCGUY

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I know it has been discussed here but this just came across on Yahoo. Damn shame they are determined to ruin one of the few truly good things left in college athletics right now. All about the $$$....

edit......Author is very against the idea. Of course the NCAA people are trying to pretend it is about awarding deserving teams bids which we all know it isn't. More games, more TV money...that is all they care about. And no matter how many teams you expand the tournament to someone is always going to feel they got screwed.

sports.yahoo.com

NCAA basketball tournament could expand as early as the 2026 season ... but the question remains: Why?

NCAA president Charlie Baker says talks are underway to expand the NCAA tournament from 68 teams to 72 or 76.
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com
 


howeda7 said:
Just moronic. They will strangle the golden goose in search of a few more $$. "More games" with 30% lower viewership because more people will disengage will not lead to more $$ long-term.
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Yep....really a shame that they can't leave a really good thing alone in the quest for more $$$. Going to 68 was dumb (though it didn't really alter the tournament that much so it wasn't a big deal)....expanding further though is just stupid.

Gong to need 2 or 3 page brackets for all the teams.
 


Roland Brooks said:
68 teams seems plenty but I guess I could live with 4 more but no more… please!

If they add 4 more I would like too see that 2 of the bids have to go to At Large Mid Major teams…
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I think expanding is beyond dumb. But if they insist then yes letting more mid majors in world be fun. Let's be honest that not what it's for. They want 16 SEC and 16 B1G teams in every year. Which I suppose helps the gophers but that's not the point. Make it tough to get in, I don't want a bid going 6-12 in conference!

Only shot we have to go back to 64 is when the p5 break away from the ncaa. Which won't be fun because then Cinderella will be gone and it will be 10-26 northwestern vs 15-18 Boston College in round 1! Sounds great 🤢
 


With NIL and the present payouts to a small group of schools we should really just pare back the tourney to 16 teams and leave the rest to alternative tournaments.
 

leib0039 said:
I think expanding is beyond dumb. But if they insist then yes letting more mid majors in world be fun. Let's be honest that not what it's for. They want 16 SEC and 16 B1G teams in every year. Which I suppose helps the gophers but that's not the point. Make it tough to get in, I don't want a bid going 6-12 in conference!

Only shot we have to go back to 64 is when the p5 break away from the ncaa. Which won't be fun because then Cinderella will be gone and it will be 10-26 northwestern vs 15-18 Boston College in round 1! Sounds great 🤢
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In theory, yes, but we've already sort of killed that dream. I don't think last year is going to be an aberration. It's going to be really difficult for the mid-major programs to field teams that could go on any sort of run because all of their best players have already gotten called up to the majors (P5).

But I agree with you, I don't want less than average Big 10 teams making the tournament. The regular season needs to stand for something.
 

Roland Brooks said:
68 teams seems plenty but I guess I could live with 4 more but no more… please!

If they add 4 more I would like too see that 2 of the bids have to go to At Large Mid Major teams…
Click to expand...
I don't know if it's possible, but I hope the extra 4 teams are brought in in some creative way. Maybe the best team in D2? Maybe some sort of play in game for the Mid Major Conference Champs who didn't win their tournament.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I know it has been discussed here but this just came across on Yahoo. Damn shame they are determined to ruin one of the few truly good things left in college athletics right now. All about the $$$....

edit......Author is very against the idea. Of course the NCAA people are trying to pretend it is about awarding deserving teams bids which we all know it isn't. More games, more TV money...that is all they care about. And no matter how many teams you expand the tournament to someone is always going to feel they got screwed.

sports.yahoo.com

NCAA basketball tournament could expand as early as the 2026 season ... but the question remains: Why?

NCAA president Charlie Baker says talks are underway to expand the NCAA tournament from 68 teams to 72 or 76.
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com
Click to expand...
It's like adding water more to the kool-aid
 




68, 72, 76 aren't they all the same? Tournament begins when you get to 64 teams.
 

60's Guy said:
68, 72, 76 aren't they all the same? Tournament begins when you get to 64 teams.
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It makes the Regular Season less meaningful.

Of course I don't watch any pre-NCAA Tournament games anymore besides Gopher Regular Season and the Big 10 Tournament so I guess personally it doesn't matter much.
 

Ope3 said:
It makes the Regular Season less meaningful.

Of course I don't watch any pre-NCAA Tournament games anymore besides Gopher Regular Season and the Big 10 Tournament so I guess personally it doesn't matter much.
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Or more meaningful? If 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 in the Big Ten standings are all wrasslin' to be included
in the Tournament fans would pay attention.
 



60's Guy said:
Or more meaningful? If 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 in the Big Ten standings are all wrasslin' to be included
in the Tournament fans would pay attention.
Click to expand...
By "less meaningful" I meant teams can absorb more losses and still get in. Your scenario also means teams 6, 7, & 8 are likely already in. It just shifts a bit which teams it's more impactful.

If the BIg 10 games are on Peacock anyway, I won't bother watching anyway as was the case for the Gophers/Wildcats game this year to kick off the Big 10 Tournament.
 

I'm out. I won't watch, do a bracket, or bother with anything unless the Gophers are in.
 

The NCAA "working" for the schools.
 

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Expanding the tournament is dumb and I don't want it to happen.

But when it inevitably does, I'm sure it'll be fine, just like the last 7 times it happened.
 

Dave H said:
The logic is infallible...Tuesday and Wednesday suck SO LETS DOUBLE DOWN ON IT!

Do people honestly think Seth Davis has smart opinions?
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Yeah...his reasoning for why the tournament isn't perfect as is anyway is because of the games that most fans don't care about already so adding more is no big deal....yep....makes total sense. He does hit on the gambling angle though.....more stuff to bet on so has to be good right?

Only time I see Davis's stuff is when it gets posted here but dude seems like a moron.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Expanding the tournament is dumb and I don't want it to happen.

But when it inevitably does, I'm sure it'll be fine, just like the last 7 times it happened.
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The most recent expansion to 68 was a dud and most people really don't even view those extra games as part of the tournament. They don't even get their own spot on brackets and most office pools consider Thursday the actual start of the games.

But yeah, it is going to happen because the people in charge don't give a crap about the product and just want more revenue. The sad part is that they hit on a really good thing with 64 but the people in charge can't leave a good thing alone when there is money to be made by continuing to expand.
 

MNVCGUY said:
The most recent expansion to 68 was a dud and most people really don't even view those extra games as part of the tournament. They don't even get their own spot on brackets and most office pools consider Thursday the actual start of the games.

But yeah, it is going to happen because the people in charge don't give a crap about the product and just want more revenue. The sad part is that they hit on a really good thing with 64 but the people in charge can't leave a good thing alone when there is money to be made by continuing to expand.
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I think the 16 seed games are pointless, but the games can still be good. Someone from the 11/12 seed games almost always makes a run too, so because of that, I don't think that expansion was a complete dud.

When they do expand, all 16 seeds should automatically get in. The first round should be all play in games for bubble teams, then they get a 11/12 seed in the tournament.
 

Just my thoughts... college basketball sucks now. I can't remember the last Regular Season game I watched without the Gophers playing in it. I still tune into March Madness because of the anticipation of the Cinderella or last second shot. My thought is put more in March Madness - I would rather watch that than a regular season game.
 

MNVCGUY said:
The most recent expansion to 68 was a dud and most people really don't even view those extra games as part of the tournament. They don't even get their own spot on brackets and most office pools consider Thursday the actual start of the games.

But yeah, it is going to happen because the people in charge don't give a crap about the product and just want more revenue. The sad part is that they hit on a really good thing with 64 but the people in charge can't leave a good thing alone when there is money to be made by continuing to expand.
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That is the issue. You can take or leave the current play-in games. Their only real harm is diluting the bubble but most people don't care about that.

If they expand to 72 and certainly if they expand to 76, it becomes very hard to just "ignore" the opening round and pretend it starts on Thursday. There will be teams with real Sweet 16 hopes playing in those games. You will either engage right away or not at all. Many will choose not at all.
 

I think there is at least a chance they kick the can one more year on this. They're in discussions with CBS and Turner over additional $$. I don't see either of them offering up much $$ for these extra games. The value of the tournament is giving you leverage for carriage fees with cable/video providers and selling overall tournament sponsorships. 6 extra games provides little incremental value. They will end up selling the "opening round" games to a 3rd partner like Peacock/NBC if they want any real $$ from it.
 

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