ESPN.com's Kurt Snibe provided the picture of the Dayton and UNC NIT commerative jerseys. I think it's a little bit of an exageration. I mean, would you rather be a 14 seed and loose after one weekend or play 5 games, includeding two in MSG? The later doesn't sound so bad.
The question at hand now is, will Dayton be the last NIT champion ever. It appears expansion to 96 teams is going to happen, so what's going to happen to the NIT? The quality of teams will be going down, as well as the possibility that not enough teams will qualify (.500 record or better). I think if they do expand, the NCAA, which owns the NIT, will just get rid of the post season tournament all together. Meaning, that yes Dayton will be the last NIT champ ever. For the schools who don't qualify for the NCAA tournament, don't worry there's always the CBI championship.
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Wait, they're really going to expand the tournament? How are they going to work the rounds.
ReplyDelete96 to 48 to 24 to 12 to 6 to 3?
This doesn't make much sense. How are they going to work this do you know? Will it be like the worst 32 teams play a play in tournament? Or will it go the worst 32 plays and then the 16 winners advance?
Here's the breakdown I heard.
ReplyDeleteEach region's top 8 teams will get a bye. The next 16 teams will play with the winners advancing to play the 8 teams with the bye. The tournament then proceeds as it currently does with 64 teams.
If I was king of the world, I would take the 32-ish automatic bids and give them all the bye. Everybody else gets to play into the tournament from there. This would lead to more "upsets" when Syracuse gets an at large bid and plays in to play Arkansas-pine bluff. The other way to do it is just give the top 32 teams the bye. I personally prefer the auto bid= auto bye option because then there is more emphasis on the conference tournaments.
ReplyDeleteI really, really don't want to see a 96 team tournament. In a perfect world for me, you make all the 15- and 16- seeds play to get in, making for a 72-team field.
ReplyDeleteThis year, that'd mean that Illinois, Dayton, Virginia Tech, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Rhode Island, and one other good NIT team get in. Tell me at least one of those schools wouldn't find a way to sneak into the Sweet Sixteen.