We’re down to the final eight teams. With all the changes in college sports, there are rumors that the March Madness tournaments will be expanded to 76 or more teams.
Last year, I posted an idea of going to 96 teams. Now, I’m going to tweak that this year.
With the smaller schools winning games in recent years, expanding the field would be good to get additional smaller programs involved. Expanding the bracket to allow more Power 5 (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, and SEC) schools involved is not necessary. So, some limits need to be placed on participation in the tournaments by Power 5 schools.
Expansion to 96 teams would only require one more round of games, which could be played in 32 games over one weekend. Universities near large cities could bid to host 2, 4, 6, or 8 first-round games.
Games on Friday could not start before 6 pm Eastern Time, and games on Sunday must be completed by 7 pm Eastern Time.
A field of 96 could have 32 conference winners, no more than 40 Power 5 at-large teams, and the remainder of at-large schools from non-Power 5 conferences.
Each region would have 24 schools, with one seeded 1 to 8 and two seeded 9 to 16 each.
In the first round, seeds 1 to 8 receive a bye. Then, teams with equal seeds play each other. Geographically, teams with equal seeds are close to the first-round venue.
Once the first round is complete, there will be 64 teams in four regions, with each region seeded 1 to 16 for the second round.
Bracket challenges would be able to use all 95 games, the first 32 games should be closely contested, and all conference champions would be pitted against a school of perceived equal strength.
Once the female game gets popular, where fans will travel, they could use this same format.
You can see my post on equal distributions for the Male and Female tournaments.