2011 Ultimate College Basketball Tournament: Introduction and Overview

With Connecticut winning its third national championship, the first expanded NCAA Tournament has concluded. 

After expanding to 68 teams and adding the First Four and spreading the games across four networks and the run put together by Virginia Commonwealth from the first round, I’m thinking this is just a temporary road block on the way to a bigger and more significant expansion sometime in the next 10 years. 

When the time comes to move to 96 teams (and let’s just face facts, we all know the NCAA is going to make it happen), the game of college basketball will be changed forever.

The discussion of tournament expansion starting last summer and the addition of three teams to have a total field of 68 teams got me to thinking.

What would happen if the NCAA went off the deep end and decided to make everyone eligible and have one massive tournament to determine the national champion? 

I decided to try to develop the ultimate NCAA Tournament involving every one of the 345 teams playing Division I basketball.

Ok, stay with me now. 

Here’s what I’ve come up with.  First, with every team participating, it will eliminate the need for the conference tournaments, so there should be no need to expand the length of the season. 

Second, it will only take four weeks to complete and every team will get its chance to be on one of the four networks that televised this year’s games.

Here, now, are the parameters for the 2011 Ultimate NCAA Tournament:

• Eight regions (East, Northeast, South, Southeast, North, Northwest, South, Southwest)
• Seven regions of 43 teams and one region of 44 teams
• All 345 teams are seeded on a true S-curve using the College Basketball Comparison ratings from Masseyratings.com after the end of the regular season
• All games will be simulated using the Sim Matchup feature at Whatifsports.com
• In true tournament fashion, all games will be simulated ONCE; this allows for the same potential of upsets throughout the brackets
• In the first week, the field will be reduced from 345 teams to 128; Week 2 will go from 128 teams to 32 teams; Week 3 will go from 32 teams to the Elite Eight; Week 4 will determine the national champion
• All games will be played at neutral sites at venues relative to each regional
• I will provide the scores and a couple of game notes for each game played in the regional recaps

So, with the format laid out, let’s end the introduction of the 2011 Ultimate NCAA Tournament with the unveiling of the top seed in each of the eight regions for this massive tournament:

• East: Notre Dame
• Northeast: Pittsburgh
• South: Texas
• Southeast: Duke
• North: Ohio State (#1 Overall Seed)
• Northwest: Brigham Young
• West: San Diego State
• Southwest: Kansas

The Elite Eight matchups will be as follows: North vs. South; Northeast vs. West; East vs. Southeast; and Northwest vs. Southwest.

It’ll be interesting to see if Connecticut can duplicate its win in the Ultimate NCAA Tournament.  I hope you will follow this journey through what will hopefully become an annual fantasy event.