Does the NCAA Tournament Need an Overhaul?

There were a few scares and a couple of upsets in the first two rounds of this year's NCAA Tournament. Oklahoma State had the Pittsburgh Panthers on their heels, and Kenny Hasbrouck and the rest of the Siena squad gave Louisville a run for their money. After the dust settled on Sunday evening, however, it was the elites who were left standing.

Only two teams with a seed worse than 4 will be playing in the Sweet Sixteen this year: the Arizona Wildcats and the Purdue Boilermakers. The defeat of No. 4 seed Washington at the hands of the Boilermakers is not exactly an upset, and Arizona, the lowest seed in the Sweet Sixteen at 12, is hardly a Cinderella team, as they have made the past 25 tournaments.

Could this lack of upsets signal a flaw in the structure of the NCAA Tournament? It may depend on who you ask. The tournament is currently setup so that most of the conferences in Division I basketball get at least one team in the Big Dance via automatic bids. Not everyone is pleased with this system, however, and some think it should be revamped. Many argue that teams get bids that they do not really deserve, and can rarely compete with the high-caliber teams they are pitted against anyway.

In his ESPN Insider article, "No to Expansion, Yes to Quality," Jay Bilas argues that the tournament would benefit if bids were given to the best teams in the country, instead of teams from lower quality conferences. He states that if the better mid-major teams got bids, there would be higher quality low seeds, and thus more upsets. He also points out the unfair nature of the selection process, asking, "Well, by treating the automatic bid as a populist giveaway, which is exactly what it is, are we not denying the dream to kids at Tulsa, Penn State, Northwestern, Nebraska, San Diego State, Saint Mary's and perhaps even Davidson? Is their dream somehow less commendable?"

The main defense of the current tournament system is that it gives every team a chance to make it to the Big Dance. Without automatic bids, teams like Cleveland State, who defeated No. 4 seed Wake Forest in the first round, would have very little chance of ever playing in the NCAA Tournament. The automatic bid also gives more meaning to regular season games and conference tournament games. If there were no automatic bids handed out, teams in the big conferences, such as the Big East or the ACC, would almost be guaranteed a spot. Teams in the smaller conferences, on the other hand, would have close to no chance.

The NCAA Tournament is great fun to watch. Whether or not it could be even better is up for debate. Either way, it will surely remain one of the most exciting and popular sporting events in the country.

Jay Bilas, "No to Expansion, Yes to Quality," ESPN Insider