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They caved in so that the 7th-best team in a P5 conference would still get in all the time.

I cant think of anything more pathetic.

Now that I think on it, the addition of the other three play in games may very well have coincided with the AAC splitting off of the Big East.

The initial move from 64 to 65 was due to the increase in conferences.

The move from 65 to 68 was a compromise after the Coaches association was pushing to expand it all the way to 96

The. Best.


https://twitter.com/GaryParrishCBS/status/1501017327399284736?t=bRv9qey92DuSZtIi3VILkg&s=19

They caved in so that the 7th-best team in a P5 conference would still get in all the time.

I cant think of anything more pathetic.

I'm honestly shocked to see this opinion from you of all posters.  In football you are our resident extremist on the "best teams only" side of things so why, in BB do you not object to letting in nearly two dozen crappy tallest midgets that are nowhere near as good as the "7th best team in a P5 conference".  

To put some data behind this, the 7th best teams in the Power leagues:

• #37 Michigan in the B1G
• #49 TCU in the B12
• #51 your very own Gators in the SEC
• #67 Creighton in the BEast
• #80 UVA in the ACC
• #106 ASU in the P12

Even #106 ASU would be the best team in 12 leagues (Ivy, ASUN, B-West, Sunbelt, NEC, B Sky, Patriot, Horizon, MEAC, Southland, SWAC.  Your bubble Gators would be the best team in 19 of the 32 leagues.  

As is, the tournament is made up of:

• Roughly the 50 best teams, and
• Roughly 18 crappy tallest midgets.  

By expanding to 80 it would be made up of:

• Roughly the 67 best teams, and
• Roughly 13 crappy tallest midgets

As is, roughly one fourth of the teams in aren't good enough to be there.  IMHO, that is too many tallest midgets.  I'm ok with some.  As I've said in football, I'm fine with one out of eight.  I'm not fine with as many as we have now.  

You would be eliminating any point of the regular season.  Low majors, sorry, you're out before it starts.  High majors, congrats, just based on your conference membership, you basically have to just be not horrible.

Beyond that, why do we want better, mediocre P5 teams in?  Do we want them to win?  I sure as hell don't.  It's part of the reward for a great season, that you open with a few facto bye game.  In the small minority of cases you lose that bye game,.that's fine, and fun.

It would be one thing if these mid majors were consistently.taking advantage of their autobids, upsetting a bunch of teams, and winning titles.  They aren't.  So replacing them with blah P5 teams, will either produce the same results, but in a less interesting manner, or they'll start winning more, which I think would actually be worse.

Football is different, because the field is so small.  By giving a spot to an autobid, you are taking a spot from a legit title contender, a worthy top 5 claim team.  In basketball the bubble teams have zero claim to be deserving of a national title.  They are just the beneficiary of the format of the event.  That's what it is, an event, that includes the conference tourneys.  Once you start taking it as seriously as being upset that the 9th place Big Ten team is out to let the SWAC champ in, you are treating it as something completely different than what it is.  If that's what you want, that's fine.  But in that case you shouldn't want any sort of monstrous single elimination bracket

I'm honestly shocked to see this opinion from you of all posters.  In football you are our resident extremist on the "best teams only" side of things so why, in BB do you not object to letting in nearly two dozen crappy tallest midgets that are nowhere near as good as the "7th best team in a P5 conference". 

To put some data behind this, the 7th best teams in the Power leagues:

• #37 Michigan in the B1G

Well basketball is beyond help.  It has decided that the regular season should be a prelude to the good stuff.  Having 300+ programs in Division 1 is.....a choice.  Basically, it's not going to change, so who cares?


When it comes to catering to the 7th-best team in a big-boy conference.....well often times that team has like 10 losses.  Look at the "best" 7th-place team - Michigan (or MSU, same thing):
17-13
1 game over .500 in-conference
sub-.500 record on the road
2-7 vs top 25 teams
.
Set aside the tallest midgets like St. Francis of Assisi or Binghamton.....just looking at the resume in a vacuum.....THIS is what we want competing in a national championship tournament?!?

What's the point?  If the defense for 68 teams and everyone with 5 breathing players getting in is buzzer-beaters, then you're honestly just advocating for a certain volume of games so that close endings are a certainty.
It has nothing to do with the brackets or earning your way in or the bubble or anything else - it's simply wanting enough games to happen so that some of them provide us with exciting endings.  
Not about competition.
Not about who's best.