June 20, 2024 • 9 mins
Join host Craig Way as he dives into the hotly debated topic of expanding the NCAA basketball tournament. From the current sixty-eight team format to proposed models with four or eight additional teams, Craig explores the pros, cons, and implications of change. Should we stick with what works, or embrace a larger field? Tune in for passionate arguments, financial considerations, and the drama that makes March Madness unforgettable. Whether you’re a die-hard fan or a casual observer, this episode will leave you pondering the future of college hoops.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome back to the Craigway Show andthe voice of the Longhorns. Craig Way.
We continue here on sports Radio AMthirteen under the Zone, drawing closer
toward into the program today and thenI'll be out until July eighth. But
(00:24):
here's here's something else. I wasjust talking about the increase of the of
the NFL schedule. Now, peoplewho have known me for a while understand
that I am a more is moreguy. I think more teams to the
party, the better. I wasbanging the table, pounding the table with
(00:46):
my fists. Not road rage,just sports fan rage for the college football
playoff. First to arrive, firsthave something off of the different bowl structure
out of the Bowl Alliance and thenthe BCS, and then to get to
a playoff. Just even getting totwo is nice. Then getting to four.
Now I'm excited about twelve. I'mfor sixteen. I've been on records
(01:11):
thing for years sixteen and where youcould get almost every FBS I think you
could get every FBS Division One conferencechampion involved in it. It's no different
in that respect than the NCAA basketballtournament, where the aqs, the automatic
qualifiers get in. Speaking of theNCAA Basketball tournament. The NCAA has presented
(01:36):
a plan to Division one conference commissionersthat would expand the men's and women's tournaments
by four or eight teams, alongsidean option to leave each field at sixty
eight teams. This just came downtoday. So these proposals were outlined to
the commissioners this week by Dan Gavett, he's the NCAA Senior vice president of
(02:00):
basketball, and also Lynn Holtzman,who's the NCAA Vice president for women's basketball.
So under this proposal, expansion ofthe sixty eight team field included both
four and eight team models. TheNCAA would keep its sixty fourteen bracket,
but would add play in games involvingthe numbers ten through twelve seats. If
(02:23):
the men's tournament were to expand,it's expected the women's tournament would as well.
This is something the guy whose Sportsfirst reported. But then there's many
in college basketball who believe and havesaid they believe the sixty eighteen fields and
the three weekends of player ideal.But the pressure has grown to add teams
(02:44):
and add games to this NCAA tournament. So you know you're talking about TV
feels right now. It's eight pointeight billion running through twenty thirty two.
That would not change if the handfulof teams are added. Would you be
up for expanding the tournament? No, not even I separily up for expaining
(03:06):
the NFL playoffs, Craig, Ithink what is wrong with sixty eight teams?
Like? What is wrong with it? I don't. I don't understand.
Has anyone ever watched the tournament andgone mad, well, I really
wish we had Oklahoma in this tournament. Did anybody watch that? I said,
Oklahoma fans last last year? No, Indiana State fans outside of them.
No, the tournament is fine withthe where it's at the Here's the
(03:31):
other interesting wrinkle that comes for this. They would have to find an additional
site other than Dayton for the firstfour games because they already have games on
Tuesday and Wednesday, wouldn't be ableto host additional play in games ahead of
that traditional Thursday first round. Thewomen's playing games are campus sites at the
first two rounds of the tournament.Expansion is largely backed by you guessed at
(03:53):
the larger conferences and the smaller leaguesdon't want to lose the automatic bids.
I don't want the smaller leagues tolose the automatic bids either. Yeah.
I think that's part of what makesthe tournament great. When you get have
a UMBC you know, a sixteenC B to one, you know that
kind of thing. It adds partof what the drama and the climate of
(04:14):
the tournament is all about. Yeah, unbc's the Oakland's Jack Golkie. Yeah,
the financial assistant knocking down ten threepointers. We don't want to lose
that, right. So if presentedwith a choice, well, the larger
conference has got to have more getin. If presented with a choice of
eliminating some AQ bids or expanding thefield to add to make room for some
(04:40):
more larger conferencing, I'm for expansion. If it does it, I'm with
you. I like it like itis at sixty eight. And like I
said, I'm on record as beinga more is more guy, but I
think sixty eight is good. Iwill also tell you this as a person
who has broadcasts the first foreign Datonfor Westwood One, as I did back
a few years ago. Wonderful event. It's a lot like the atmosphere and
(05:06):
the embrace of it within the Daytoncommunity is much like Omahama the College World
Series, very very similar, verysimilar. And you're thinking, really for
that for two eleven seed games andtwo sixteen s Yes, welcome Texas,
Southern, Welcome Holy Cross, andthen like a Wichita staid a cow,
(05:29):
you know whatever, the other twoeleven seed games would go on. They
embrace all of that. They sellthat arena out and they're there for it
for the tournament. So it's great. So if they had to find another
place for that, Okay, there'splaces you could find I think that would
do very very well, that wouldembrace that. Probably someplace on the East
(05:55):
coast. You could probably do somethinglike, oh, I don't know,
Charlotte or Richmond, virgin And yeah, Greensboro would be another basketball hot bed.
You could put it in there.You could do it probably in Memphis.
You could do it in Saint Louis. You could do it in Kansas
City. You could do that.S right. You could rotate that other
first four thing to places out ofplaces that would probably host first and second
(06:17):
round anyway in the rotation. Soon a year or two years when they're
not in the rotation, give thema first four I think you could do
that if you had to do itthat way to keep the model in place,
to allow the AQ schools to stillget in, to let the me
(06:38):
ACT champion get in, to letthe Southland Conference champion get in, you
know, the the West, whatis it, the Big West champion to
get in the Big South. It'sanother good one, Yeah, Southern Conference
whatever, because those teams are verymuch a part of this tournament and the
(06:59):
upsets that happened out of the comingout of the Patriot League or the Metro
Atlantic or whatever, that's a bigpart of it. And I don't want
to see the tournament lose that.And there's nothing here that says absolutely that
if that were the case, youknow, if they were to keep it
the same, they have to getrid of some of the aqs. That's
not what this is about. It'snot saying that. It's just they're sending
(07:24):
for an eight team models to expandit to as many as seventy six teams.
And look, let's not kid ourselves. Let's just say cam they expand
the field of seventy two. Let'ssay they expanded the seventy six. Okay,
if they expanded the seventy six,that means it's adding eight more teams.
You know what that's going to mean. There's still going to be eight
more teams in the first four outand the next four out by Joe Lenardi
(07:46):
and who felt they should have gottenin. You're still going to have that.
You're still going to have the teamsthat are on the bubble every year,
whether it's a field of sixty eightor one hundred and sixty eight,
you're still going to have teams thinkingthey should get in when they didn't get
in. That doesn't change. Thiswon't change that. So if you're thinking
that it helps alleviate that, eh, I don't see it happen in that
(08:09):
way. But might it increase someinterest in the tournament a little more?
Maybe? I don't know. Ijust think it's a good thing that they
go ahead and keep the aqs theway they are right now and more games
(08:30):
would provide at least a small boostthrough ticket sales and merchandise, but the
pool of money the NCAA uses topay out the conferences and the membery schools
would essentially stay the change. Thatwould stay the same. It would not
change. So anyway, So thereyou go, all right, we'll be
back to wrap up the program forme for the last time until we get
(08:50):
to the eighth of July anyway,before skipping out of here for a couple
of weeks, So we'll do thatwhen we come back here on sports Radio
AM thirteen under the Zone and theiHeartRadio app.
Welcome back to the Craigway Show andthe voice of the Longhorns. Craig Way.
We continue here on sports Radio AMthirteen under the Zone, drawing closer
toward into the program today and thenI'll be out until July eighth. But
(00:24):
here's here's something else. I wasjust talking about the increase of the of
the NFL schedule. Now, peoplewho have known me for a while understand
that I am a more is moreguy. I think more teams to the
party, the better. I wasbanging the table, pounding the table with
(00:46):
my fists. Not road rage,just sports fan rage for the college football
playoff. First to arrive, firsthave something off of the different bowl structure
out of the Bowl Alliance and thenthe BCS, and then to get to
a playoff. Just even getting totwo is nice. Then getting to four.
Now I'm excited about twelve. I'mfor sixteen. I've been on records
(01:11):
thing for years sixteen and where youcould get almost every FBS I think you
could get every FBS Division One conferencechampion involved in it. It's no different
in that respect than the NCAA basketballtournament, where the aqs, the automatic
qualifiers get in. Speaking of theNCAA Basketball tournament. The NCAA has presented
(01:36):
a plan to Division one conference commissionersthat would expand the men's and women's tournaments
by four or eight teams, alongsidean option to leave each field at sixty
eight teams. This just came downtoday. So these proposals were outlined to
the commissioners this week by Dan Gavett, he's the NCAA Senior vice president of
(02:00):
basketball, and also Lynn Holtzman,who's the NCAA Vice president for women's basketball.
So under this proposal, expansion ofthe sixty eight team field included both
four and eight team models. TheNCAA would keep its sixty fourteen bracket,
but would add play in games involvingthe numbers ten through twelve seats. If
(02:23):
the men's tournament were to expand,it's expected the women's tournament would as well.
This is something the guy whose Sportsfirst reported. But then there's many
in college basketball who believe and havesaid they believe the sixty eighteen fields and
the three weekends of player ideal.But the pressure has grown to add teams
(02:44):
and add games to this NCAA tournament. So you know you're talking about TV
feels right now. It's eight pointeight billion running through twenty thirty two.
That would not change if the handfulof teams are added. Would you be
up for expanding the tournament? No, not even I separily up for expaining
(03:06):
the NFL playoffs, Craig, Ithink what is wrong with sixty eight teams?
Like? What is wrong with it? I don't. I don't understand.
Has anyone ever watched the tournament andgone mad, well, I really
wish we had Oklahoma in this tournament. Did anybody watch that? I said,
Oklahoma fans last last year? No, Indiana State fans outside of them.
No, the tournament is fine withthe where it's at the Here's the
(03:31):
other interesting wrinkle that comes for this. They would have to find an additional
site other than Dayton for the firstfour games because they already have games on
Tuesday and Wednesday, wouldn't be ableto host additional play in games ahead of
that traditional Thursday first round. Thewomen's playing games are campus sites at the
first two rounds of the tournament.Expansion is largely backed by you guessed at
(03:53):
the larger conferences and the smaller leaguesdon't want to lose the automatic bids.
I don't want the smaller leagues tolose the automatic bids either. Yeah.
I think that's part of what makesthe tournament great. When you get have
a UMBC you know, a sixteenC B to one, you know that
kind of thing. It adds partof what the drama and the climate of
(04:14):
the tournament is all about. Yeah, unbc's the Oakland's Jack Golkie. Yeah,
the financial assistant knocking down ten threepointers. We don't want to lose
that, right. So if presentedwith a choice, well, the larger
conference has got to have more getin. If presented with a choice of
eliminating some AQ bids or expanding thefield to add to make room for some
(04:40):
more larger conferencing, I'm for expansion. If it does it, I'm with
you. I like it like itis at sixty eight. And like I
said, I'm on record as beinga more is more guy, but I
think sixty eight is good. Iwill also tell you this as a person
who has broadcasts the first foreign Datonfor Westwood One, as I did back
a few years ago. Wonderful event. It's a lot like the atmosphere and
(05:06):
the embrace of it within the Daytoncommunity is much like Omahama the College World
Series, very very similar, verysimilar. And you're thinking, really for
that for two eleven seed games andtwo sixteen s Yes, welcome Texas,
Southern, Welcome Holy Cross, andthen like a Wichita staid a cow,
(05:29):
you know whatever, the other twoeleven seed games would go on. They
embrace all of that. They sellthat arena out and they're there for it
for the tournament. So it's great. So if they had to find another
place for that, Okay, there'splaces you could find I think that would
do very very well, that wouldembrace that. Probably someplace on the East
(05:55):
coast. You could probably do somethinglike, oh, I don't know,
Charlotte or Richmond, virgin And yeah, Greensboro would be another basketball hot bed.
You could put it in there.You could do it probably in Memphis.
You could do it in Saint Louis. You could do it in Kansas
City. You could do that.S right. You could rotate that other
first four thing to places out ofplaces that would probably host first and second
(06:17):
round anyway in the rotation. Soon a year or two years when they're
not in the rotation, give thema first four I think you could do
that if you had to do itthat way to keep the model in place,
to allow the AQ schools to stillget in, to let the me
(06:38):
ACT champion get in, to letthe Southland Conference champion get in, you
know, the the West, whatis it, the Big West champion to
get in the Big South. It'sanother good one, Yeah, Southern Conference
whatever, because those teams are verymuch a part of this tournament and the
(06:59):
upsets that happened out of the comingout of the Patriot League or the Metro
Atlantic or whatever, that's a bigpart of it. And I don't want
to see the tournament lose that.And there's nothing here that says absolutely that
if that were the case, youknow, if they were to keep it
the same, they have to getrid of some of the aqs. That's
not what this is about. It'snot saying that. It's just they're sending
(07:24):
for an eight team models to expandit to as many as seventy six teams.
And look, let's not kid ourselves. Let's just say cam they expand
the field of seventy two. Let'ssay they expanded the seventy six. Okay,
if they expanded the seventy six,that means it's adding eight more teams.
You know what that's going to mean. There's still going to be eight
more teams in the first four outand the next four out by Joe Lenardi
(07:46):
and who felt they should have gottenin. You're still going to have that.
You're still going to have the teamsthat are on the bubble every year,
whether it's a field of sixty eightor one hundred and sixty eight,
you're still going to have teams thinkingthey should get in when they didn't get
in. That doesn't change. Thiswon't change that. So if you're thinking
that it helps alleviate that, eh, I don't see it happen in that
(08:09):
way. But might it increase someinterest in the tournament a little more?
Maybe? I don't know. Ijust think it's a good thing that they
go ahead and keep the aqs theway they are right now and more games
(08:30):
would provide at least a small boostthrough ticket sales and merchandise, but the
pool of money the NCAA uses topay out the conferences and the membery schools
would essentially stay the change. Thatwould stay the same. It would not
change. So anyway, So thereyou go, all right, we'll be
back to wrap up the program forme for the last time until we get
(08:50):
to the eighth of July anyway,before skipping out of here for a couple
of weeks, So we'll do thatwhen we come back here on sports Radio
AM thirteen under the Zone and theiHeartRadio app.
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