The NCAA could

[petey23]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5374116

Expand to 68....ok go ahead. Obviously you take the last eight in and have them play to see which 4 move into the 64 team field(61 vs. 68, 62 vs. 67, 63 vs. 66, 64 vs. 65)......not so fast, this is the ncaa so they take it upon themselves to screw up a what should be a pretty simple process....is anyone surprised?

[the green team]

I still think that the little conference teams, such as ourselves here in the future are going to suffer. Their going to get stuck in many of these games and it diminishes the tournament experience for the student athletes. Does anyone remember which 2 schools were in the play in game last year, and you can't tell me that the players of the team that lost were absolutely devastated by the fact that they didn't get to the real opening of the tournament on CBS that Thursday & Friday...that's when you want to be in the tournament--whether you're playing the 1 seed in the first game or not. You won't see any highlights of "One Shining Moment" (which I love by the way) of these early games. By doing this, and this includes the previous 1 game playoff...the NCAA has devalued its own product.

[GeauxSioux]

What I heard this morning on the radio was that the weakest four conference winners would play the "last in" at large teams in the four play-in games. I would say that the Summit and Big Sky would be likely be in that position quite often.

[SiouxMD]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5374116

Expand to 68....ok go ahead. Obviously you take the last eight in and have them play to see which 4 move into the 64 team field(61 vs. 68, 62 vs. 67, 63 vs. 66, 64 vs. 65)......not so fast, this is the ncaa so they take it upon themselves to screw up a what should be a pretty simple process....is anyone surprised?

The games will be televised on TruTv (formerly CourtTV)...

TruTv?

[star2city]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5374116

Expand to 68....ok go ahead. Obviously you take the last eight in and have them play to see which 4 move into the 64 team field(61 vs. 68, 62 vs. 67, 63 vs. 66, 64 vs. 65)......not so fast, this is the ncaa so they take it upon themselves to screw up a what should be a pretty simple process....is anyone surprised?

With the NCAA's penchant for screwing the little guys, this is a much better arrangement than I expected. If eight automatic qualifiers had to play off for 4 #16 slots, almost all of the little guys would be 14, 15, and 16 seeds. Seeds like 13 and 12, which offer much better chances of winning, just wouldn't be available.

Instead, the last 4 at-large teams which are mostly from major conferences have play-ins, so the entire tournament isn't one big screw job on the little guys.

[petey23]

With the NCAA's penchant for screwing the little guys, this is a much better arrangement than I expected. If eight automatic qualifiers had to play off for 4 #16 slots, almost all of the little guys would be 14, 15, and 16 seeds. Seeds like 13 and 12, which offer much better chances of winning, just wouldn't be available.

Instead, the last 4 at-large teams which are mostly from major conferences have play-ins, so the entire tournament isn't one big screw job on the little guys.

So much for bracket integrity I guess.

[FargoBison]

What I heard this morning on the radio was that the weakest four conference winners would play the "last in" at large teams in the four play-in games. I would say that the Summit and Big Sky would be likely be in that position quite often.

The Summit would have been in the play-in game maybe once in the past five NCAA tournaments under this new format. Of course the Summit has benefited by sending their top team to the tournament in at least four of those seasons, the best team in the Summit is usually pretty solid.

[coach daddy]

The Summit would have been in the play-in game maybe once in the past five NCAA tournaments under this new format. Of course the Summit has benefited by sending their top team to the tournament in at least four of those seasons, the best team in the Summit is usually pretty solid.

Has a team from the Summit ever won a game in the NCAA tourney? Maybe Oral Roberts?

[Hammersmith]

Has a team from the Summit ever won a game in the NCAA tourney? Maybe Oral Roberts?

No current Summit team has won a game in the tourney(with the exception of Oakland winning the play-in game in 2005). Former Summit(Mid-Con) schools have won games while being members. I think the most recent was Valpo's Sweet Sixteen run in 1998.

[star2city]

No current Summit team has won a game in the tourney(with the exception of Oakland winning the play-in game in 2005). Former Summit(Mid-Con) schools have won games while being members. I think the most recent was Valpo's Sweet Sixteen run in 1998.

Oral Roberts actually reached the Elite Eight in 1974, losing to Kansas in OT. At the time, ORU was in the Midwestern City Conference, which is now the Horizon League. In the 80's ORU actually dropped down to the NAIA, and when it returned became a member of the Summit.

With earlier membership, a number of MidCon teams with minimal resources have won NCAA games between 1986-98: Valpo (Sweet 16), Cleveland St (Sweet 16), N Iowa, SW Mo St (now Mo St), and UWGB.

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