NCAA Tournament Thread

[Polito]

Absolutely horrible idea, and this will go another step further to ruining the best sporting tournament around.

Good ol NCAA never misses a beat to squeeze another dollar out for themselves - their pure greed, and others, is just killing college sports. This will not help nor boost nor improve the NCAA Tournament in any way. This will dilute and make it worse, and all they're going to do is add in more below average power teams - the fact we had a 7 loss #1 seed was just ridiculous

Mid majors will not benefit one iota from any expansion - it will be that much harder for them to do anything, and we'll all get to watch sub .500 "power" teams play bad basketball

We are cinderella-less for yet another year, and it will only get worse - one of the greatest things in sports, is dying, just so so so stupid.

[Wags]

Absolutely horrible idea, and this will go another step further to ruining the best sporting tournament around.

Good ol NCAA never misses a beat to squeeze another dollar out for themselves - their pure greed, and others, is just killing college sports. This will not help nor boost nor improve the NCAA Tournament in any way. This will dilute and make it worse, and all they're going to do is add in more below average power teams - the fact we had a 7 loss #1 seed was just ridiculous

Mid majors will not benefit one iota from any expansion - it will be that much harder for them to do anything, and we'll all get to watch sub .500 "power" teams play bad basketball

We are cinderella-less for yet another year, and it will only get worse - one of the greatest things in sports, is dying, just so so so stupid.

It sucks for fans of mid-major basketball like us, but it (unfortunately) makes perfect sense for them to do this. No mid-majors in the Sweet 16 for the second straight year and for only the third time since 1985, and this year's NCAA tournament has its highest ratings in 30 years. We are vastly outnumbered. Although people say they love Cinderellas and mid-major runs, there are still far more people who want to see their power conference teams play and advance in the tournament. Sucks for us, but that's the truth of it.

[Polito]

Sadly wags, you are 100% on point. Can't argue with the data. It just sucks for the 98% of everyone else who's not in the blue blood group. It won't change and it won't be good for mid majors at any point because the money is lining the right pockets.

The stakes are high for mids, and this makes a repeat run THAT much more vital - we need to take advantage of this momentum and maximize all we can while we can.

[Wags]

Michigan is the first national champion to start five transfers.

The NIL era, really in full swing now.

[Wags]

Bad luck/timing for Tarris Reed.

He played four years for Michigan and UConn, which combined for three national championships over those four years - yet, he never got a ring.

[Wags]

In the NCAA Tournament, teams are 1-50 all-time when:

- scoring under 70 points
- shooting under 40.0% from the field
- shooting under 15.0% from 3 on 15+ attempts
- getting outrebounded

The lone win in those 51 instances was Michigan over UConn last night.

[cactus]

Half a second of biggie Paterson from behind in one shining moment early on

[Wags]

Half a second of biggie Paterson from behind in one shining moment early on

Edmead was in that part too (if you don't blink!)

As quick as Edmead appeared in the OSM video and then gone feels fitting for his Hofstra tenure.

[Wags]

As rumored, 76 teams will be very likely starting next year for the men's and women's tournaments. That plan could be finalized over roughly the next three weeks.

https://x.com/PeteThamel/status/2049244083667783710

[dutchPride86]

As rumored, 76 teams will be very likely starting next year for the men's and women's tournaments. That plan could be finalized over roughly the next three weeks.

https://x.com/PeteThamel/status/2049244083667783710

Terrible. If its true that the bottom 12 auto-bids are all sent to opening round games now, would hope its at least play-ins for all four of the 16 seeds (8 teams for 4 spots) and two 15 seeds (4 teams for 2 spots) in that case. Would hope Hofstra always good enough to be spared from that, but that would also very likely make it almost impossible for Hofstra to ever do better than a 14 or 15 seed, making any chance at a 1st rd upset that much harder.

(In the current format the 1th and 12th worst auto-bids are 14 seeds not 15s, so slide every 13 or 14 seed back 4 slots at least)

[HofstraPride1]

If NCAA was smart they would have opening round games be largely final at larges from power leagues since better ratings and would help them get better TV deal but more likely they will use as way to reduce midmjaors when you get to main part of draw. This makes that 2026 CAA title run that much more meaingful now so we could be assured of the main draw in final year of 68 team format.

[HUSID74]

It would not be ideal to be in the play-in round but it Would give us a better chance of winning a first round game and getting a second game in the dance.

[stuball888]

It's not the same to me winning an NCAA tournament game as if you're in the round of 64
I have said this a while back that it believes somewhere in the near future the NCAA will expand to 96 teams. It will then relocate the mid majors to the NIT. The NIT will expand to 64.
Sorry guys, but it's all about money. Nothing more than that.
With NIL the players get their money
With the NCAA tournament, the NCAA gets their money

[Wags]

It would not be ideal to be in the play-in round but it Would give us a better chance of winning a first round game and getting a second game in the dance.

It also brings in money those schools, so it's not all bad for them, but I still hate it. When a 16 beats another 16 in a play-in, I think it's a "cheap" NCAA tournament win, even though they officially count it as such. I also don't think any AQ should have to play their way in again even though those who win are happy to record the "tournament win" and to make money. The play-ins should have always exclusively been for the last bubble teams to play their way in, and it should be no different now, going to 76. I have been saying this from the start, ever since they went from 64 to 65, before 65 to 68. That was the original idea behind expansion to begin with, to solve the bubble issues on the floor rather than in a committee meeting room. So, what did they do? They went halfway with that and included AQs as well. Idiotic. And although Dayton is a great venue, it's needless extra travel. They should have always (and even more so now, with 76) sent the play-in teams directly to the sites where the winners would go next and play those play-in games there. This doesn't need to be complicated and if they did it this way (with the sites, with bubble teams only and no AQs), adding an extra eight teams wouldn't be so bad. But I have absolutely no faith that they will do it the right way. They will screw up the play-ins by including AQs as well as bubble teams, just as they have since the start.

[Wags]

Not sure if this is official, but if so, it looks like exactly what I expected them to do, which is simply an expansion of what they were (wrongly) doing before, with half bubble teams and half AQ teams playing the play-in games. Should be 24 bubble teams playing for 12 AL spots and no AQ teams involved, but we knew they'd do this.

https://x.com/MarchMadnessMBB/status/20 ... 38/photo/1

As expected, the men's and women's selection committees voted unanimously today to expand the to 76 starting next season, with not a single dissenting vote.

[stuball888]

Mark my words Wags it will expand to 96 team
All will be from the power 5
All midd majors relegated to the NIT with 64 teams
Follow the money

[Wags]

Mark my words Wags it will expand to 96 team
All will be from the power 5
All midd majors relegated to the NIT with 64 teams
Follow the money

If not 128. The sport we loved is well on its way to being severely damaged. But we may have a few years left of it still being okay (at 76).

Once it was shown how much money could be made at the pro level with all of these things, it was inevitable that college sports would follow suit:

- Hiddeous and unnecessary alternative jerseys (whether they are the team colors or not)
- Playoff expansion (after the NBA added play-in teams and after the NFL and MLB added playoff teams; the CFP playoff is now 12 and will double to 24).
- Free agency and paying players (just like the pros, NIL and the portal has delivered that to college sports).
- Alternative media for viewership (just like we can't watch TNF on TV anymore, and while not a single NBA playoff game tonight or tomorrow night is on TV, Amazon Prime now has a deal with Duke, with many more to follow in college sports).

[HofstraPride1]

Mark my words Wags it will expand to 96 team
All will be from the power 5
All midd majors relegated to the NIT with 64 teams
Follow the money

Won't be all from Power 4 but could def see 96 teams eventually. NIT is basically useless at this point so could also see that going away.

[JoeyBagODonuts1]

If I figure it right, all teams that were 13 seeds (like Hofstra) would now be 14 seeds under the new format, playing a 3 seed instead of a 4 seed

[dutchPride86]

If I figure it right, all teams that were 13 seeds (like Hofstra) would now be 14 seeds under the new format, playing a 3 seed instead of a 4 seed

That is correct. There will now be 4 additional 16 and 15 seeds, and you know those will all be filled by AQs and not at large teams. So have to slide all the 13s and 14s back a seed line to cover those extra 15 and 16 play-in games.

Everyone is rightly worried about all the mid-major AQs being sent to play-in games, but for the few good enough to avoid that fate it still makes it that much harder to win a game in the tourney. Fwiw Andy Katz put out a mock 76 team seed list this morning for 2027, had Charleston as the CAA rep at 60, which is a 14 seed...

https://x.com/MarchMadnessMBB/status/20 ... 53642?s=20


Can't wait for in a few years from now when upsets are significantly down the discourse from the power conferences becomes the mid majors never win anyway, why keep them in at all