Ease his (our) pain...

I agree with Eric Crawford (and plenty others): expanding the ncaa tournament from 64 to 96 teams next year is a terrible idea. The plan is for the top eight teams of each region to receive a bye during the first round, and for the bottom eight teams in each region to play the 32 additional teams added to the tournament. The winner of those games plays the teams that got the first round byes. To make room for the extra round, games would be played on the Tuesday and Wednesday of the second week -- in other words, the part of the week that teams currently spend recharging their batteries and anticipating their Sweet Sixteen matchups. I like those heady days as is, spent analyzing your opponent and getting hyped that the possibility of a Final Four appearance is suddenly only a weekend's play away. Assuming you make it past the first weekend, of course. But I digress...

Crawford blogged about the plans for expansion over the weekend. Even while committing a HUGE cardinal sin by using a Field of Dreams allusion in a negative context (that movie is sacrosanct and should only be used for good, Eric... Mr. Red, whose life philosophy originated from that movie, will likely erupt into another manic fury when he sees the transgression), Crawford made some important and salient points about the negative effects of expansion. To summarize his arguments: 1) it's bad for the players because it keeps them on the road for a full week, 2) the tournament is wildly popular now; if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and 3) it opens the door for future expansions.

All valid points... and I would add to the list that expanding the tourney will suck the drama out of the mid-major conference tournaments and will reduce the importance of bubble team's performances in the major conference tournaments. Most repugnant, it will place the ncaa's decision-making process completely into the hands of the networks, who are the ones spearheading this decision. Yeah yeah, maybe they control the process already and I am being naive. But do this, surrender this decision to ESPN and CBS, rather than concentrating on fixing football which is what the college sports world overwhelmingly desires, and you can remove even the pretense that universities, their alumni, and their fan bases have a say.

Expanding the tournament is a bad idea. The way it's set up now, it actually means something when you make the tournament. Expansion to just under a hundred teams will diminish its quality and prestige. For most teams, having your name called on Selection Sunday suddenly won't be as thrilling. Want to use a Field of Dreams quote the right way? Nothing sums up better the stark importance of playing well enough during the season to make the field of 64 -- or the consequences of failing to do so -- than one of Shoeless Joe's other (more underrated) lines: when Ray Costella argues that it should be him, rather than Terrence Mann, who gets to venture into the cornfields, Shoeless Joe replies, "but you weren't invited." Exactly.

Read Crawford's post here.