[SirFozzie]

Saw something about how some folks are thinking the NCAA tournament should go to 80 teams with the lowest 32 teams playing a first round game, and 48 teams advancing directly to the round of 64.

Mainly, this is at the behest of the big conferences, who want an ever bigger share of March Madness money to teams that are only like .500, but they do have a point in that less then a fifth of the teams qualify for the tournament.

However. Half the fun of March Madness is the teams we know very little about (nationally speaking) pulling off the upsets and breaking everyone's brackets.. So, I've come up with a compromise that hopefully gives the majors and mid majors what they want, while making sure the smaller teams get a fair shake (and also gives the NCAA more money to send out).

All conference champions (big or small) get put in the round of 64 automatically, along with the top at-large teams to make up the 48 teams.

That means 32 at-large teams get placed in the NCAA Tournament first round, but the losers in this round automatically get a seed in the NIT.

So, the NCAA has an additional 12 games to sell in their premier product (reminder, we're at the field of 68 now), the NIT gets a small boost because teams will want to end their season on a high after losing in the tournament, and the big and mid-major conferences will get a few more bids.

(Just to break this down:

Auto advancing to Round of 64: 32 Conference Champions (current amount), 16 At-Large Teams

Playing in NCAA Tournament First Round: 32 At-Large Teams)

One hidden benefit is that it makes mid-major and major conference tournaments a bit more impactful when one or both teams are already in the projected field. Win the tournament, automatically get placed in the round of 64 instead of having to play in the first round.