Originally Posted by UACFlyer
This situation is made to sound like as complex as finding a cure for cancer or Mars travel...when actually it's ridiculously simple.
Combine the NCAA-owned NIT with the NCAA tournament forming a 96 team field...about 1/3 of the Div 1 schools. Thirty two receive a first round bye, while 64 play round one games.
That's it. Mid-major NCAA tournament problem solved.
Scheduling remains challenging....but would becomes an issue without life and death consequences for majors and mid-majors as regards getting into the NCAA tournament.
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How would this solve anything in terms of the prejudice (perceived or real) the mids feel about the majors? The 32 additional bids might in all probability get eaten up by the same majors, this time with 17-15 BIG-12 teams with 7-13 league records. There's no indication the Selection Committee would use those additional bids more advantageously toward the mids.
Would a few more mids get in? Probably, but the bias would remain and not enough that deserved to be in a 96-team field would get in. Which puts us in the exact same position we are now. We kept the same bias and simply shuffled the cut line. To me that's not a solution. It just means the 19-11 A10 team gets bypassed for the 17-16 ACC school. Feels like addressing the symptom and not the disease.
Of course, one could argue if you can't make a 96-team field you have no case to begin with, but we already have that argument at 68. That's the excuse (or reason) pundits reconcile the existing bracket.
