One thing to improve the Tournament

[the nail at the foul line]

The Championship Game has been on Monday as long as I can remember. I think it should be moved to Sunday night. Keep the semi's on Saturday, maybe play earlier in day? Then Sunday at 8:05 Eastern play the Championship.

Viewership would go up. Maybe play the women's at 4 on Sunday.

 

[ORCAT]

Don't think that would be good. Need more than that for the guys to have off before the championship game and for the coaches and team to have a little prep time against their opponent. You're not even giving them 24 hours off before playing the most important game of the season and, for many of them, most important game of their lives.

 

[kev69]

I vote for having the Semifinals on Friday night, and the Championship game on Sunday at 7:00 Eastern.

 

[BlueRunner11]

Oh, just eff that tournament, it's ratings, the ncaa, the refs, etc. <-- yep, that's pretty much where I'm at right now.

 

[the nail at the foul line]

Semi on Friday might work better.

 

[ukalum]

Prior to about 1971, the semis were on Thursday night and the final on Saturday afternoon. In 1966, the year of Rupp's Runts, the semis were on Friday night and the final was Saturday night. Starting in 1971 it switched to the current format.

 

[Ky-troutbum]

I think i would like the semis on Thursday night and the championship on Saturday night.

 

[EliteBlue]

1 thing that would make the biggest difference. Rank teams 1-68 and take geography and conference consideration out of it. Pick random sites and let the pieces fall

 

[kats23]

At least move the start time to 8pm instead of 9:20. Makes 0 sense to start at that time. Football too. I'm guessing advertising costs more after 9 but still.

 

[CatEye2010]

Re- seed the sweet 16

 

[KentuckyRLD]

Things are great the way they are. The OP's suggestion is extraordinarily bad.

 

[JDHoss]

At least move the start time to 8pm instead of 9:20. Makes 0 sense to start at that time. Football too. I'm guessing advertising costs more after 9 but still.

They want to bring in the PTZ viewers as well.

 

[Cardsstink]

Less teams, double elimination.

 

[the nail at the foul line]

Things are great the way they are. The OP's suggestion is extraordinarily bad.

It would be more like Superbowl on Sunday.

 

[ORCAT]

I vote for having the Semifinals on Friday night, and the Championship game on Sunday at 7:00 Eastern.

This makes great sense. Only problem with 7 Eastern start for the networks would be that they want it later to get more advertising money in prime time. At least that's my theory.

 

[rick64]

Cut it back to a 32 team tournament.

 

[12375CAT]

CBS & NCAA will have the final 2 be best 2/3 just like baseball does because it is all about the $$$

 

[hootervillearnolds]

This doesn't impact the UKs or UNCs or Kansasae (if that is the plural of Kansas) but I would like to add four teams, and hence four more play-in games.

The four would be the top four teams (as selected by the committee) who won or tied for their conference regular season, lost in their conference tourney and did not get an at large bid.

This will shut up some of that "woe is me" talk about regular season games not mattering in one bid leagues.

I think this year the four teams would have been: Belmont, Illinois St, Oakland (or Valpo) and Akron. (Note, only one 'extra' per conference allowed, hence not both Valpo and Oakland.)

As for how to play it out in the tournament...

Currently there are 4 play-in games with eight teams playing in Dayton. 4 of the teams are picked from the "6-16's" and 4 are the bottom four at-large teams (usually 12's or 11's). This year those four were: K St, Wake, So Cal and Providence.

I propose having eight 16 seeds (the bottom eight), so all 1 seeds have a "play-in winner" to face. That is tough on the small conferences, but should make for better 1 vs. 16 games.

And I propose having the four new "extra teams" (like Belmont, Ill. St., etc.) play the four lowest at-large teams.

The four extra games would either make Dayton "really busy" for the two days (four games each day) or allow a second city (maybe one closer to the western 1st round sites) to be like a second Dayton.

If there are two cities (my choice) each would get two 16-seed games and two-higher seed games. This year having Oakland vs. Wake and Akron vs. Providence in Dayton, with Ill. St. vs. K St and Belmont vs. So Cal in Albuquerque would have been good match-ups and demonstrated whether Belmont and Ill St (for example) got shafted.

***BTW, if you are wondering if it ever happens that there aren't four teams that won leagues and lost tourneys and didn't get at-large bids... well this year there were fifteen teams in ten one-bid conferences that got left out after either winning or tying for their regular season crown. So, this would not give a guarantee to regular season winners, but it would give the best of them a second chance.

 

[SaguaroCat]

No more final fours in Football stadiums.

 

[Dig Dirkler]

Less teams, double elimination.

This -- and if the team coming out of the loser's bracket wins the first game, then the final game has to be played immediately after. Double header for the national championship FTW

 

[nerdcat]

UK gets to pick it's seed, the officials, it's region, and doesn't have to play a seed higher than a 3 until the final four. At least that's the way I read the posts on here.

 

[jrm693]

UK gets to pick it's seed, the officials, it's region, and doesn't have to play a seed higher than a 3 until the final four. At least that's the way I read the posts on here.

I don't think anyone is advocating that, but rather are tired of just the opposite, having the deck stacked against us every year.

 

[crestcat]

Don't let teams in the tournament that have a NOA unsettled, that keeps cheaters out and gives them a reason to get them settled