NCAA Expansion: Open Letter to The NCAA, Please Don't Expand The Tournament

Dear NCAA,

We have had some wonderful times haven't we?

Remember Lorenzo Charles' dunk and Jimmie V's celebration to have NC State upset Houston. Or Christian Laettner's amazing clutch shot?  Even Chris Weber's timeout or Villanova over Georgetown in 1985?  Even more recently, George Mason's amazing run to the Final Four.

Every year you give us great memories.

Yet every year, someone suggests that something is wrong with having a whopping 65 teams vie for a chance at the college basketball national championship.  They go on to suggest, "Hey, why not 96 teams in this tournament?"

The NCAA held meetings behind closed doors in December to discuss a possible expansion of the 65-team tournament to 96 teams.  Former UCLA coach John Wooden has even said the tournament should include every team in Division One Men's basketball. 

That's over 300 teams!

I say, please ignore these crazy thought. I don't think I could survive that much madness in March. My heart couldn't take it.

There are already 18.5 quintillion different brackets that could be filled out, but with common sense, The Wall Street Journal says the odds of a perfect bracket are a paltry one in 240 billion.

I don't have enough time to devote to college basketball to research another 34 or (God forbid) 269 basketball teams. 

Besides that, there is no way I could ever decipher if a mid-level MEAC team could beat a cellar-dweller of the MAC.

No way!

I have no clue if Gerald McLemore could lead Maine to an upset of Coastal Carolina, or if that would even be an upset!

The expansion of the tournament would make the regular season completely meaningless.

Teams would play their stars less in order to save them for the tournament. Regular season games would become less entertaining. And you had better believe that teams would schedule even easier non-conference games if they don't need to make their strength of schedule stronger.

Do you have any clue how upset I become when one of my Final Four teams loses in the second round? I would be equally upset at this point if one of my final 32 teams lost with 200 other teams still playing in the tournament.

I would go hoarse with rage. I would be kicked out of every sports bar in town. My friends would abandon me, and my family would disown me.

The tournament is, without a doubt, one of the most exciting sporting events of the year, but the addition of another 34 teams seems as if it would bog down the excitement of the whole tournament.