Why the NCAA Tournament should expand to 256 teams
#Gonzaga is in the Final Four.
As alum of this school, I couldn’t be happier. For the fans, for the school, and for the academics – This achievement will help the school. In fact, while talking to my former roommate from college, it was the first time in forever we talked about something other than work, relationships, or politics. The fun fact here is neither of us are really sports fans. However something stated during the conversation brings up a fact most people don’t consider – visibility.
For those who follow college basketball, #Gonzaga in recent years has been something of perennial team. They will go to the tournament – the question was always how far? In fact, two of my schools (of a total of 3) have made it year after year into the tournament – #Gonzaga and #Creighton. So how does this help me – alum from years past – with the value of my degree?
The answer is both simple, yet complicated. Simply put its name recognition. People see the college name and they get publicity. However if this was just the case, then why isn’t Duke the most popular school in the United States? After all they have made it many times to the Final Four. The complexity arises from this. Rather people seem to view a winning season and record of a school with the caliber of their academics. This is one of those reality vs. perception arguments – does a school rank higher because it’s more known or is there a direct relationship between sports performance and academics.
In terms of athletic performance and academics, I do not think they necessarily have a direct causal relationship. Case in point, schools like #Miami used to dominate in terms of football, and academically it was shown that athletes were not getting the education they deserved. Basketball is a slightly different in which their competitiveness requires less resources. To sponsor a football team, schools need a stadium, financial backers, and games are played more in an ‘event’ status. Basketball games tend to be sustainable with smaller crowds, less emphasis on TV rights, and have a longer schedule – well least more games. But still some big schools have run afoul of NCAA guidelines over the years and frankly #UConn doesn’t really stand out to me in terms of academic performance in that I really cannot say a school or field they are famous for educating.
I do think the publicity effect does pay more of a role. When I attended Creighton, our basketball team was dismal. During my second year Dana Altman took over and turned it around to the point that Creighton moved from the #MVC – Missouri Valley Conference – to the more prestigious #BigEast Conference. During this time from when I was a first year student, I worked in fundraising for my school as a part time job. That first year was hard getting boosters for the athletic program. As we started winning games, more people became boosters to the program. In fact for our annual fund campaign, I noticed that it seemed more people were excited about the school and willing to donate. As a result, while it’s not a direct effect that having a winning season means a school is better, it does bring in more funds. These funds in turn can be used to expand facilities and promoted recruitment. So due in part to this complexity, I would say that a winning season has a positive effect on the school which in turn makes a degree ‘worth’ more – well least in theory.
Why 256?
In my conversation, one thing we both realized was while neither of us are sports fans, we know about smaller schools because of the NCAA Tournament. Xavier, Seton Hall, and Villanova are smaller schools but basketball powerhouses. St. Johns is another in which – contrary to those on the east coast that think the world revolves around them – is known to the rest of the country thanks to a positive basketball program. I could list many others, but name recognition means people will look at the school now that it’s known. And competition in education in my opinion only makes schools focus more on the student and inevitably will lead to a better education.
Right now there are 68 teams that play. Reality is no one cares about the playoff teams in 65 to 68 (we don’t – just admit it). Reason is because there is no ‘brackets’ like with the 64 teams. If we doubled this, it would add another game and bring the schools to 128. However this makes it odd and costly to schools to just travel for a single game, hence the 256 – 2 games so schools can have an event that matters. Round 256 and 128 would be played back to back day after day. Right now the nearest competitor to the NCAA Tournament is the NIT. The NIT doesn’t have the clout of the NCAA Tournament; so in fact, the winner of the NIT is generally viewed less than someone knocked out NCAA Tournament in the first round. As my Dad once said jokingly – “the winner of the NIT doesn’t matter because the best they could be is Ranked #65.†Harsh but true given the rules of each tournament.
The advantage to a field of 256 lies with the schools. It gives an opportunity for 256 colleges to get national attention – even if they are regional schools. Someone in Florida gets to hear the name of a school in New Hampshire and someone in NYC gets to learn about a small school in like Loyola Marymount in LA. Furthermore, I can’t see Las Vegas turning down the opportunity to make money. A few years ago, Warren Buffet offered up the $1 Billion Bracket Challenge as a stunt he knew he’d win. Reason being is the odds for you to pick every winning team in every game are astronomical – and he was proven right when no one was able to win. Now double it and double it again. Odds like that make the Powerball look like a sure bet. Besides with some teams have 10,000:1 odds on winning the champion at 16th Rank in their division, imagine the odds for someone ranked 64 in their division? It’s an odds-maker’s paradise.
Gambling aside, I do feel it is for the schools. Imagine the joy alumni would have seeing their teams compete with schools they could only dream about. Imagine the pride of a school when their 64th ranked upstart team is able to knock out the national favorite. Indiana got Gene Hackman starring in the original Cinderella team movie – “Hoosiersâ€. Imagine what it would be like for some small private school and the publicity they’d get from their simple “Never say never†basketball team from a campus of 2,000 competing against a titan like Duke and nearly if not being able to defeat them? That is an underdog story for the ages!
Reality is the chances of this occurring are very small. Sports are big business and one thing sports enterprises do not like to do is compete with other sports. If the NCAA Tournament was extended, would it start earlier and run further into college football or go later and compete with Opening day with Major League Baseball? Heck, the saying around elections is the polls don’t matter till after the World Series is done, but today that is like what – 3 days? I can’t imagine the MLB going later in the year since it seems odd when you see snow during the World Series – for a sport famous for summer! Still it’s worth discussing.
What do you think?
PS: To determine the odds of selecting the perfect bracket, people with more time and willignness to do the math have come up with a "high" of about 1 in 128 Billion per Jeff Bergen of DePaul University in an article I found. Of course, you could argue that the odds are not always 50/50 in a coin flip as well.