Not that the tournament is in full swing, it is time for the obligatory how to improve it thread. It must first be noted that when dealing with the NCAA, logic does not always make sense, nor is change accepted quickly. That being said, I think that I have an interesting idea for the NCAA Tournament, that would increase revenue, and allow for the stronger teams to usually win, while keeping the oppourtunity for a smaller team to advance. Step 1. - Limit the field to 32 teams and divide it up into 8 "pools" of four schools. Step 2. - Each pool be located at a the highest seed's home field (see NCAA Baseball). Step 3. - Each team plays three matches against the other teams in the pool. Doubleheaders on tuseday-thursday and saturday. Step 4. - The group winner is determined by points, (3 for a win, 1 tie) then goal differiental. Step 5. - Top 8 teams are reseeded and the higher seeded team hosts the quarterfinal match. Step 6. - College Cup at a neutral location. The time issue is not really relevant here. It can be accomplished within three weeks. The pool play could increase the amount of fans that travel to watch their school play, thus increasing revenue for the NCAA. Any other thoughts
I like the pool in baseball overall, except that you always seem play the same teams in regionals and supers in baseball. My Heels have been eliminated by South Carolina 3 years in a row in either regionals or super regionals. Good for rivalries, I guess.
It used to be 32 teams, and now that parity is improved, people are screaming for 64 teams. This is better exactly how?
Not a bad idea, although I'd like it to be 64 instead of 32 teams and the winners of the 16 groups go to the knock-out round.
The only problem with 64 teams is the added time off from school. Administrators might complain too much about that. I also think that if there are 64 teams that qualify for the NCAA tournament, that is somewhere near 1/2 of the d-1 teams that play. A little too many. When the number of teams playing increases, then increase the number of teams in the tournament.
There are almost 200 D1 teams that play soccer, so 64 teams is about 1/3 of the total teams. The women's tournament plays a 64 team field, and no one complains about the amount of school missed. Rather than the NCAA picking up the costs for every team, this would be more than workable if they only picked up the costs for the automatic berths in the 1st round, and say 1/2 the costs of the 1st round at-large teams. I'll guarantee you that every at-large school could find it's way clear to pay for 1/2 the cost for a 1st round game in exchange for increasing the field to 64 teams.
Sorry, I was a little off with my numbers. But I think that the NCAA has a formula for the number of teams in the tournament.
Re Step 6, I would say "College Cup at *Centrally Located, Not-too-cold-weather* Neutral location. Having it on one coaast or the other makes it expensive for good numbers of fans to travel to the Finals. Also, and this goes more to college soccer in general and I'm am sure has already been discussed a lot, but I would also say do away with the free substition rule. Make it three subs max, once you go out you can't come back on, and if you use all your subs you play down a man. This WWF-style, tag-team soccer has got to go.
Well, I guess with an early December date, you have no pretty much limited the event to where? Texas? I guess the NCAA could start having it in Frisco every year....unless the stadium is already booked for some big-time Texas HS football games....which undoubtedly would bring in a ton more $$$$.
I would like to the see the seedings calculated with more weight given to your non-conference schedule. Some of us, not in power conferences have to kill ourselves and travel all over god's creation to get a game with power teams. Good to Great teams year to year cannot help what league they are in, and they are penalized with lower seeding because of it. If they could weight it 25% conference schedule and 75% non-conference schedule, I think we'd see a lot more effort by major conference schools to actually give games to the better teams out there. I mean wouldn't you rather see your ACC school playing VCU, UNCG, or College of Charleston than Liberty or Charleston Southern? I know I sure would.