March 31, 201016 yr I heard Jay Bilas say that the NCAA had to "buy" the NIT a few years ago to settle a lawsuit that the NIT had brought. If true, then the NCAA is running two tournaments with all the costs that go with them. Bilas seemed to indicate that it would be cheaper for the NCAA to incorporate the 32 teams from the NIT into an expanded NCAA tourney, and that, as usual, money is driving the decision. The NIT would then cease to exist.
March 31, 201016 yr I heard Jay Bilas say that the NCAA had to "buy" the NIT a few years ago to settle a lawsuit that the NIT had brought. If true, then the NCAA is running two tournaments with all the costs that go with them. Bilas seemed to indicate that it would be cheaper for the NCAA to incorporate the 32 teams from the NIT into an expanded NCAA tourney, and that, as usual, money is driving the decision. The NIT would then cease to exist. Correct. It is for the most part combining the NIT field into the NCAA field...
March 31, 201016 yr I know that it's probably going to happen... I just don't see a place for a 16-15 team in the field that's going to play for the championship -- Unless they win their conference tournament and earn it. ESPN's bubble bursting games are pretty meaningless at that point.
March 31, 201016 yr There will be a lot of questions/problems to fix, but I agree it looks like it will happen soon.
March 31, 201016 yr I think this is a bad idea. Why would you mess up a good thing? I don't want to have an argument as to why Auburn or Northwestern deserve into the tournament as a 22nd seed. There is no need to mess with a good thing. What the NCAA has works, it doesn't need fixing.
March 31, 201016 yr Author Again, the NCAA is out to expand the teams for the basketball tourney and yet wont put together a football playoff. It's all driven by the dollar, not the student-athlete.
March 31, 201016 yr If anything, I feel like this really hurts what I have grown to love and that's the week before March Madness begins...Championship Week. A lot of those games aren't really going to matter now because a lot of those teams are going to get in. Sure does take away some of that excitement if you ask me.
March 31, 201016 yr I don't remember because I'm not old enough, but what did people think when the tournament expanded from 32 to 40 (and added legitimate seeding) in 1979? What about in 1980 when it went to 48? And what about in 1985 when it went up to 64? I'm curious because I was just a wee chap at the time. Also, does the past expansion of the tournament correspond with the growing number of Division I teams? I can't find information on the numbers of schools participating at the time of the previous expansions, but Division I has grown tremendously in the last 10-15 years. Perhaps it's something of a participation percentage thing? To add to that, currently 65 teams out of 344 make the tournament (18.9%). Adding 31 teams to get the number up to 96 would make the percentage 27.9%. If you want to compare it with football, although in my opinion that's probably not a fair thing to do, 68 teams out of 120 make a bowl game (56.7%). The more realistic comparison would be that only two football teams can officially win a national title though (the BCS national championship), which makes that percentage 1.7%. Just some thoughts...
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