Matthew Yglesias (March 15, 2008)

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21!

15 Mar 2008 03:44 am

Congrats to the Rockets.

Comments (4)

Congrats indeed.

Shifting over to college hoops a moment, you were talking a week or so ago about how stupid it was that the NCAA didn't give the best teams a bye.

I've also been thinking for years, "why have a 'bubble' at all? Why not let everyone play in?"

I've got an idea that takes care of both.

Aside from that one silly play-in game (what's with that, anyway?), half the NCAA draw - 32 teams - plays on Thursday, and the winners play on Saturday. The other half plays on Friday, and the winners on Sunday.

Here's my variation: the selection committee picks teams 1-16 that go directly to the Saturday games, and teams 17-48 that will play as usual on Friday.

The Saturday opponents of teams 1-16 get chosen by 16 8-team (more or less) play-in tournaments that would be played during the week, Tuesday through Thursday.

Any team that finished above .500 in its games against other Division 1 teams could participate in the play-in tournaments.

Right now there are 330 NCAA-eligible teams, with another 11 transitioning in. 48 tourney slots plus 128 play-in slots gives room for 176 teams, so you'd have enough slots for more than half of Division 1. And it's unlikely that more than half of Division 1 would finish over .500 against other Div 1 teams. But if it was ever necessary to expand, you could add a Monday round to some of the play-ins.

And if you didn't finish above .500 against Division 1 opposition, well, too bad.

Anyhow, that puts 16 of the best teams directly into the second round, and it gets rid of this 'bubble' nonsense. There really ARE better ways to do the NCAAs.

Posted by low-tech cyclist | March 15, 2008 7:08 AM