The play-in game should be for conference also-rans, not conference champs. I don't think it makes any sense for any team that won its conference championship to have to play in the demeaning "play-in" game. It's a slap in the face -- the NCAA telling these schools that they don't really belong. OK, they'll probably lose in the first round, but they're champions and they do belong. The teams that should be playing for the right to be part of the field of 64 are the teams from "power" (what I call "money") conferences with .500 records in conference play. This year's play-in game should have featured Boston College against Utah or Charlotte. And don't tell me that this would make it difficult to seed the tourney. Just leave open a ten or twelve-seed for the play-in game winner.
good idea WOK. I also think there should be 3 more Play-In games, for teams like K-State, Syracuse, Virginia, etc.
heh I don't think they do belong. At all. Since half the teams in the NIT could pulverize them. Winning a conference championship, if your conference is beyond terrible, means nothing. I'd rather strip the automatic births away from the really, really bad conferences, entirely... I'd rather not choose between Utah and Butler, when I could kick out one of the #16s instead. And before you say "well, #15 seeds have upset #2's before" (a whole 3 times, I think)... how many more upsets would occur if teams like Butler, Syracuse, Virginia etc were playing instead? I think a few #1s would have been knocked off by now.
Well, I disagree with that premise 100%. Just a matter of taste, I guess. If the whole tourney was made up of teams from "power" conferences, then March Madness would be a bunch of huge schools playing each other in an extension of conference play. I just don't think that mediocrity should be rewarded. Even if it is mediocrity in a "major" conference. It has nothing to do with who can beat whom in the tourney; it's just a different philosophy about what the tourney's about. Sure, the overall quality of play would be higher if there were more Syracuses instead of Sienas. But I like the fact that a bunch of kids who have no NBA future get a chance to play on national TV and tell their grandkids about the time they played Jason Williams and Drew Gooden. Even if they do lose by 40.
