2021 March Madness

[NJCat]

Imagine the first weekend of the round of 349:

"The ACC will propose that every Division 1 basketball team makes the 2021 NCAA Tournament, a source told The Athletic, confirming multiple reports. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim told The Athletic that the proposal makes sense because selection couldn't be done fairly this year and it will give athletes an incentive to play rather than opt out due to COVID-19. "It's just so fair to let student-athletes be part of it after all the unknown they have been through and will be in the future," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey told The Athletic."

ACC to propose every Division I team makes 2021 NCAA Tournament

The ACC will propose that every Division I basketball team makes the 2021 NCAA Tournament, a source told The Athletic, confirming multiple reports. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim told The Athletic that the proposal makes sense because selection couldn’t be done fairly this year and it will give...

theathletic.com

 

[TheC]

Imagine the first weekend of the round of 349:

"The ACC will propose that every Division 1 basketball team makes the 2021 NCAA Tournament, a source told The Athletic, confirming multiple reports. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim told The Athletic that the proposal makes sense because selection couldn't be done fairly this year and it will give athletes an incentive to play rather than opt out due to COVID-19. "It's just so fair to let student-athletes be part of it after all the unknown they have been through and will be in the future," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey told The Athletic."

ACC to propose every Division I team makes 2021 NCAA Tournament

The ACC will propose that every Division I basketball team makes the 2021 NCAA Tournament, a source told The Athletic, confirming multiple reports. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim told The Athletic that the proposal makes sense because selection couldn’t be done fairly this year and it will give...

theathletic.com

That would have sucked if this was the way NU finally made it to the dance for the first time.

 

[IGNORE2]

That would have sucked if this was the way NU finally made it to the dance for the first time.

Not a terrible idea. Send the losers from round of 64 to become NIT

 

[NURoseBowl]

That would have sucked if this was the way NU finally made it to the dance for the first time.

Very true. Thankfully, though . . . . .

 

[ohiovalleycat]

I could see expanding the tournament like the NBA and MLB are doing for their playoffs, but I don't think all 300+ teams need to be invited. I could see expanding it to let's say 96 or 128. I think they if they do expand it due to COVID-19, then may be they could use it to also experiment with the format. Maybe consider doing like the World Cup or some Olympic team sports do where there is group or pool play where the top teams from pool play make the single-elimination portion of the tournament.

Another option I see could be to do some form of double elimination, especially with the concern about fair seeding. I think double elimination within pods of 4 like they do for college baseball could work, except continue it on for the tournament to pick who comes from what would normally be the first two full rounds to go to the Sweet Sixteen, then the pods set up for the Sweet Sixteen would determine who goes to the Final Four, and then the Final Four could be its own double elimination pod to decide the national champion.

 

[Catreporter]

Maybe adding a couple extra rounds to NCAA tourney could make up for SOME of the lost revenue from last March. I think an expanded tourney with a shortened regular season makes a lot of sense but I don't think it needs to be all Division One teams.

 

[Smolmania]

Isn't adding all of the Div I teams simply adding an extra two weeks of the tournament? Rounds of 128 and 256 weekend 1, and the rest of the teams play in the prior weekend. Seeding includes byes for highest rank teams during the regular season. This way, there's no complaints about "we shoulda been in the top 64/68 teams." Total meritocracy. Win and go on.

 

[ohiovalleycat]

Looks like the NCAA is brushing aside the ACC's overtures to have everybody in the tournament.

NCAA shoots down ACC proposal to hold 2021 NCAA Tournament with every Division I team

ACC coaches proposed a 350-plus team NCAA Tournament, but the NCAA is not interested

www.cbssports.com

I would venture the NCAA would not want to worry about trying to pay for hotels and other traveling expenses for all 350+ teams during a tournament where there is going to be lost revenue from limited attendance. The more I think of it, isn't the conference tournaments basically like a qualifying tournament for all NCAA teams anyways, so all teams already have some shot advancing however remote and likely.