It's time to get rid of the play-in game. When teams like Villanova, Arizona and St. Joe's are getting at-large bids and the best teams that didn't make it are Arizona State and Virginia Tech, I think it's safe to narrow the field from 65 teams to 64. The play-in game isn't fair to those teams that made the tournament, aside from which it's stupid and contrived to begin with. For some reason, it bugs me. Get rid of it.
It bugs me that they put in teams that are automatic qualifiers. To me the game should be Georgia vs. Arizona or whoever the last 2 in were.
they should have a play-in game for each region between the last eight at-large teams.... winners get #12 seeds
Dumb question. When is the play-in game? Is the play in game included in pools? Basically, I'm wondering when is tbe latest that I can set my brackets?
I hate the freaking play-in game. Someone is going to get left out, why add a stupid game that makes it even harder on a 16 seed? I think sports media created this "We feel sorry for the last team out" that led to this stupid item. Just take your 64 and off we go.
Maybe we should add a second play-in game so we could get another at-large team in. Heck, if we had four play-in games, we could've gotten Southern Illinois, Arizona State, and Virginia Tech into the tournament. We could even add play-in games for the play-in games and and get Dayton, Massachusetts, Ohio State and VCU in the field. Think how much better the tournament would be then!
I don't have a problem with it. Its a chance for a very small school to have the spotlight and it doesn't hurt anyone. I went to Northwestern State in 2001 when they went, the team, band, & cheerleaders traveled and did everything but practice together. It was great for the school. Well, until they had to play Duke anyway
I heard a story on the local sports radio that the play-in game was started because the WAC split. The Mountain West Conference formed and the NCAA had to give out an additional automatic to the MWC tournament champion. The NCAA did not want to drop the number of at-large berths so they decided to keep the number of at-larges the same and have a single play-in game.
Yeah, that's why they added it. It's still unnecessary. Who cares if there are 33 at-large teams instead of 34? It's better than contriving some play-in system. What happens if another conference splits?
I'm opposed to sending non-major automatic qualifers there instead of the final at-larges. Those teams earned their NCAA bid by winning their tournament; at least give them a "real" first-round game. My preference would be to have 4 play-in games amongst the final 8 at-larges, and slot the winners into the 12-seeds. With the pod system now allowing all 4 12-seeds to play on Friday, this is feasible.
Get rid of the play-in game, and get rid of automatic bids for conference tournament winners. Simply let the 64 best teams play for the championship.
