Field of 96? Wow!

A recent "Outside the Lines" on ESPN examined the possibility of NCAA Tournament expansion. They presented a field of 96 (!), where the top 32 seeds get a bye for the opening round, while the remaining 64 teams play in the opening round. This is a bold plan and would put a lot more teams in the field. Basically 2/3rds of the teams that qualify for the NIT would be in the Field of 96. About half of those "NIT teams in the field of 96" would probably play in the opening round against the mid/low majors. This could also allow the regular-season conference champions to earn an automatic bid.. This argument alone will get a lot of proponents from the mid/low-major schools. One potential disadvantage is it would make it harder to get a cinderella like Bucknell over Kansas or Vermont over Syracuse. Although in a field of 96, Vermont would have been seeded a lot higher.

Another suggestion by an ESPN VP (and former CBS Sports exec) was to expand the opening round to 4 games instead of 1.

Other brilliant ideas thrown in the past: Have the bubble teams play each other in the opening round.for a spot in the NCAA tournament. This would preserve all the mid/low majors in the field of 64, while the bubble teams would have to earn/lose their bid by playing other bubble teams. [put-up or shut-up for those whining that they have been left out]. These games could even be played at MSG appeasing the NIT whiners. The last time I heard this argument was from Digger Phelps during Championship week.