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

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> > So what is essentially 'pure'
> about 65 ? 

Well, 64 works out pretty niceley to two games in a weekend, three weekends in the format. Dropping it to 32 still keeps it at 3 weekends with one only having one round of games. Opening it to 96 does the same in the other direction. (don't even say 128!:) )

And 64 seems to be a good balance as well with the 31 auto-qualifiers from league tourneys and the 33 (34) at-large teams. There are a few bubble teams that burst, but it strikes a nice balance between giving league champs from small leagues a shot and giving good teams that might finish 4th or 5th in their league but get hot late (or had injuries early) a chance as well.

Like I said, 68 would be OK because having just one play-in game seems dumb ... this way those small-league teams get a chance at a meaningful game before being fed to the #1 seed.

There's no magic number, but 64 has worked well and makes sense.

But 96 is just a mess all around. What will they have? Three games opening weekend? Sheesh.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT