Daily Rant: 3/16/11

Let the Madness begin! Two of what the NCAA call, "The First Four" were decided last night. Clemson pounded UAB and UNC-Asheville defeated Arkansas-Little Rock in overtime to make up half of the early entries into the main pool of teams in the tournament. The NCAA expanded the field to 68 teams this year and even though they were exciting games last night (most college basketball games are), it has created more confusion and has added more chaos. The Tournament is by far the best way for college teams to whittle themselves down to a champion, most experts and fans believe that college football should conduct their playoffs the same way, but increasing the numbers like they did this season has taken a little bit away from the glory a team receives from punching a ticket to the "big dance". It almost seems like any team can make it into the tournament now and the NCAA is talking about expanding it even further. When they added the "65th", play-in team last year, it was only one extra team and it actually made attaining that last spot fun to watch teams battle it out for. Now, that excitement has been has been dulled a little and the top of everyone's bracket is crowded with teams that have hyphens in their names, which no one has ever heard of. It was fun to see teams like Gonzaga, Butler, Ball State, George Mason, etc., make runs during the previous tournaments, because those one teams had to fight and never stop fighting to get anywhere past the first round. This new system gives these unknown schools an easy in and will inevitably sway next years seeding because they made the tournament through the new expansion. No one knows how this will all play out this year and fans will probably end up getting used to it being close to 70 teams playing in the tournament, but as of now, things are still jumbled. Until the games begin on Thursday, these first games just feel like regular season ones that don't matter. The real ones will start and everyone will sigh in relief that this is actually March Madness.