http://www.ocregister.com/articles/team-242506-tournament-ncaa.html
The NCAA basketball tournament and the Pac-10 are not broken. But the administrators want to see swelling.
The NCAA is hungrily looking to expand its wildly successful men’s basketball tournament from 64 to 96 teams.
The Pac-10 is lathered up about the possibility of expanding its perfectly symmetrical 10-team league to 12.
No word on whether the Kentucky Derby is going to 2 miles next year, or if the Masters wants 144 holes.
And no clarification on why it’s still not feasible for major league college football to determine a real champion under a real playoff, yet it’s absolutely necessary to get the 10th Big East team, the ninth ACC team and the 29th Big Ten team into basketball’s Big Dance, which at this rate is going to need a ballroom the size of Cowboys Stadium.
The NCAA hasn’t officially adopted the 96-team field. It is, of course, waiting on orders from the TV networks.
But many coaches, unaware that a bigger NCAA field will provide no more job security, have been soapboxing about this all season.
You will recall why we have 64 teams in the first place. It is because the coaches, at least the ones at great and powerful schools, didn’t like the 48-team matrix.
Why? Because there were too many upsets of high seeds who had gotten first-round byes. Those teams were rusty and flat, and the underdogs that beat them were warmed up and ready.
Orange County Register
4/3/10
