Expanding the NCAA Tournament Field

Recently I have seen some articles about expanding the NCAA Tournament field to as many as 96 teams. Let me start with saying that I think the NCAA Tournament is the perfect sporting event and I was against the Play-in Game when it was instituted. No matter what there are going to be bubbles burst on Selection Sunday. If the field gets expanded to 96 teams all that it will mean is that instead of teams 66,67 and 68 griping about not making the tournament it will be teams 97, 98 and 99. I just thought it was a weird thing to do to accommodate one more bubble team. I've since come around a little primarily because of how much the city of Dayton gets in to it. Guess what the attendance was for last year's play in game was....for Morehead State vs. Alabama State...have your guess...it was 11,346. That's insane to me. Granted, I would have went if I lived in or around Dayton but still. It's cool that the city embraces it.

If the NCAA Tournament wants to expand again the maximum I would do is add three more play in games so each region has one. That day would turn in to a holiday in the Dayton area. You could have ESPN broadcast all four games in one day. Break it in to 2 sessions that Tuesday and have it be an all day event. It would make the low seeded teams feel like more part of the tournament since it would go from a random Tuesday night game that people forget is on to an all-day broadcast. Plus it would give 8 teams who never get shown on TV another ESPN game (other than their conference tournament championship game that they would have to have won). That has to be a better tournament experience than getting blown out by 50 to a #1 seed and having your game switched off at the half. I'd prefer they leave the whole thing alone but if they have to expand it, anything more than these extra three play in games would be a mistake.