Thoughts on the NCAA basketball tournament 76-team expansion…
-The already watered-down regular season is now a complete joke. Teams with losing in-conference records will routinely get in the tournament. It is impossible to even imagine a single regular season game having ANY intrinsic meaning.
-The primary motivation, other than giving the big conferences 8 more free spots, appears to be increased gambling inventory, which is also why the football playoff will eventually expand.
-The implementation appears to be as bad as the idea. Instead of taking the 24 worst-ranked teams (essentially the winners of the smaller conferences) and putting them in a situation where they might win a very competitive tournament game, it appears some very lowly ranked teams will get a “bye” into the real 52 team field, while other higher-ranked teams will be forced to travel with VERY short notice to a play-in game, and face having to win 7 games to win the title (which will NEVER happen).
-The logistics of this are almost insane. 24 teams play (possibly rather early to create TV inventory) on Tuesday or Wednesday after finding out where/who they play on Sunday evening. Then the 12 winners have to travel again to play their next game on Thursday or Friday. Good luck if we get a mid-March snow storm in Dayton!
-Clearly the tradition of everyone filling out their brackets has been greatly diminished, because there is no way casual fans are going to get that done by Tuesday morning, with 6 games now being scheduled starting that afternoon.
-College sports have been ruined, but at least the gamblers and TV people are happy!
😡🤮
THE DESECRATION OF THE NEW YORK YANKEES
2017: New Era logo on hat
2020: Nike logo on the front
2023: Starr Insurance patch
2025: Facial hair policy removal
2026: Alternate uniforms
COMING IN 2027: CITY CONNECT
COMING IN 2028: NAMES ON JERSEYS
With High Point out, the only chance for a non-power conference team to make the Sweet Sixteen is Utah State. Which has to beat Zona to get there.
It's not a fluke. The Sweet 16 was 16 power conference teams last year.
Still love the tourney, but it's losing a lot of its charm.
One Channel, No Streaming, and Sneaking Sick Days: The old-school March Madness experience was electric.
Box-televisions, no @truTV and finding betting-lines in the newspaper!
I don’t know if folks realize how good they have it. ✏️ @TreyWallace https://t.co/4OTK9ZZJSU
@JustAnthrSean@StanfordSteve82 He has 3 more years on his contract. Was given an extension of two years last season. Was not publicized for some reason.