BRACKETOLOGY: More teams needed

I know many of my loyal readers out there have been waiting on this. Truth be told I wanted to do the first one last week, but I just didn't have the time. So here we are with our first one of the year.

I expect the NCAA Tournament field to be expanded sometime in the next five years. It's 336 teams in Division-I college basketball. Only 65 get the opportunity to play for the national championship. That's just above 19%. More than half the teams go to the playoffs in the NBA...a little over a 1/3 go to the playoffs in the NFL, and damn near half the teams in Division-IA college football get to go to bowls. Basically what I'm saying is it's becoming very difficult with parity and the sheer number of teams to pick 65 teams and it be fair.

You see from what happened last year when the CAA and the Missouri Valley made runs in the NCAA tournament AND the NIT (Old Dominion made it to the semi's). It's very challenging to compare the resume of a good mid-major and a power conference team when they're both on the bubble.

Now I'm not saying 20 teams need to be added because I think that's ridiculous, but something has to be done. I think somewhere between 4-8 would be great.

On to some issues about the current season.

I've been very impressed with the Pac-10. They have seven teams that could possibly make the tournament this year and 7 out of 10 ain't bad.

The Missouri Valley is back at again and is probably better this year. However, the conference is cannibalisizing itself and once again it'll be interesting to see what the committee is going to do on Selection Sunday. Same theory rings true for the CAA.

Oregon...Clemson??? I bet you didn't see that coming.

On to the bracket

The committee has decided to change the regions back to the actual name of the region instead of the name of the city the region was placed in. Good move...Now just get rid of the pods.

East vs. West and Midwest vs. South

Last Four In: Indiana St, Texas Tech, USC, Northern Iowa
Last Four Out: Wichita St, Purdue, California, Michigan

East
1.North Carolina16.Belmont Winston-Salem, NC
8.Washington St9.Missouri St
5.Butler12.Davidson Buffalo, NY
4.LSU13.Virginia Commonwealth
6.Texas11.USC Lexington, KY
3.Alabama14.Ohio
7.Boston College10.UNLV Buffalo, NY
2.Pittsburgh15.Siena
West
1.UCLA16.Cal St Fullerton Sacramento, CA
8.Michigan St9.West Virginia
5.Kentucky12.Wintrhrop Winston Salem, NC
4.Duke13.UMASS
6.Maryland11.Georgetown New Orleans, LA
3.Oklahoma St14.Texas A&M-CC
7.Arkansas10.Southern Illinois Lexington, KY
2.Ohio St15.Delaware St
Midwest
1.Wisconsin16.Jackson St Chicago, IL
8.Syracuse9.Georgia Tech
5.Nevada12.Texas Tech Columbus, OH
4.Tennessee13.Holy Cross
6.Notre Dame11.Indiana St Spokane, WA
3.Oregon14.Penn
7.Virginia Tech10.Gonzaga Chicago, IL
2.Kansas15.Oral Roberts
South
1.Florida16.Sacred Heart/Austin Peay New Orleans, LA
8.Marquette9.Stanford
5.Clemson12.Northern Iowa Columbus, OH
4.Memphis13.Western Kentucky
6.Air Force11.Providence Spokane, WA
3.Texas A&M14.Vermont
7.Indiana10.Creighton Sacramento, CA
2.Arizona15.Idaho St