More Cinderella Stories for March Madness?

Last week the NCAA approved the expansion of the Men’s Basketball Tournament known to most as “March Madness,” announcing that they were expanding the field from 65 to 68. This has been a controversial topic, but I think that it is a great decision. This smaller expansion (the original proposal was for 96) solves the issue of only one region to get that extra year such, was the case the past few years.
This year’s success of the Butler Bulldogs is a good example of why this decision could make for some exciting basketball. This year Butler was the “Cinderella” team from the Horizon Conference who shocked the world and came within a 3-point shot of defeating the Duke Blue Devils in the National Championship game. Not only was that huge for Butler, but it was also huge for college basketball. I have to wonder if the success of the Bulldogs may have led to the expansion because the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee saw how Butler got so many people interested in this year’s tournament. Another clear factor was the fact that that committee wanted to give a few more mid-major’s a chance to get in to the tournament with at-large bids.
Often times, there is a team that wins the regular season title in a mid-major conference but fails to win the conference tournament. With the expansion of the NCAA Tournament, these teams would probably all earn births to the tournament as would some other mid-majors. This is great for the tournament, because not only does it increase its ratings on CBS, but it also gives these mid-majors more of a chance to compete with the Duke’s and UNC’s of the world, and showcase their talent and conferences.
Although they are only expanding it to 68 teams, the originally proposed 96 would have been a huge change. Too many teams would make March Madness seem like the bowl games in college football, where you can be one game above .500 and be bowl-eligible, which to me is a joke. You should not be rewarded for mediocrity.
With the success of Butler, some of the prestigious pre-season tournaments such as the Maui Invitational, the Pre-Season NIT Tournament, the Great Alaska Shootout, and the Old Spice Classic might start including more of these mid-major teams because they can bring more excitement to these events, and will also help boost television ratings.