Old Tournament Format

TritonHawkeye

TritonHawkeye

Well-Known Member
Is it only me or does anyone else miss the old tournament format that if you were an East, West, South or Midwest regional team you actually traveled?

I loved the old format and don't think it should have changed. It sounds like there is talk on how to change the tournament yet again, this time to 96 teams. My thought fix a mistake and change where teams play based on regions.
 
Kind of tend to agree - If you were in the East Region, you actually played in the EAST, etc. That pod system is a little strange. Not that it takes away anything from the tournament though, because the tournament is still great.

What really bugs me now is the talk of expanding to 96 teams. It will water it down a LOT and take away all the magic of what is currently the first round. The NCAA Tournament is the greatest sport event there is IMO. Why fix what isn't broken?
 
Not sure how the 96 team format will work but won't it bring back "Bye" games and isn't that one of the reasons they went to 64 teams? Besides the money factor the teams that would lose there first game after the bye claimed the other team had an advantage since they had already played a game.
 
BlitzBuster said:
Not sure how the 96 team format will work but won't it bring back "Bye" games and isn't that one of the reasons they went to 64 teams? Besides the money factor the teams that would lose there first game after the bye claimed the other team had an advantage since they had already played a game.
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I'm more worried about what type of effect it would have on the well established tourney pool system. 64 teams fits quite nicely on a standard piece of paper.
 
Blitz, you hit the nail on the head. With the old 48-team format, the top sixteen teams had a bye. Those teams hated it! It meant that they went almost two weeks between games. Sometime even more than two weeks. Not only that they had a dead week. As an example, back in 1980 Syracuse was the No. 1 seed in the East. They knew they were going to play either Iowa or North Carolina State. So in the first week they really could not seriously prepare for the next game. However, Iowa and NC State prepared for the next game, played a game, and Iowa moved on to the next game. It really put the coach of a team with a bye in a bad situation.

Iowa dominated Syracuse from the beginning of the game. You really could tell early in that game the difference between the two teams. Iowa was a seasoned, experienced team because they had prepared for and played a game. Syracuse looked nervous and like a team that had a two-week layoff. The hardest game you play in the NCAA Tournament is the first.

With 96 teams, the top thirty-two would have byes. Those teams will drop like flies in their first games.
 
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