[NU Sports] NCAA Poised to Expand to Field of 96; NIT Slated for Extinction

[Tom Maycock]

> As far as I can determine, the main
> point of 96 would be to help the BCS-conference teams that
> are currently left out of the current 65-team format.

You're probably right. Well, that and the money.

One of the frustrations about the tiresome repetition of the "NU has never made the tournament" factoid is that we know there have been years when Northwestern was better than several teams who did make the tournament. It's certainly not "the best 64 teams" in the country each year. 

But so what? The bottom, 10, 15, or 20 teams are just cannon fodder anyway. 

Don't get me wrong--I hope NU makes it this year (even if we are just cannon fodder), but a 96-team tournament is just stupid in my opinion. 

Tom