PORTLAND, Ore. \u2014 NCAA Tournament expansion has been a hot topic all season \u2014 and really, for a few years \u2014 but Wednesday at the Moda Center, the day before the first round of the 87th iteration of the tournament is set to tip, Wisconsin guard John Blackwell offered his own unique take on how to make the tournament bigger: more games.<\/p>\n
Like, a lot more.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe personally, I think it\u2019s fine where it\u2019s at, I think the 64 is great,\u201d said Blackwell, whose fifth-seeded Badgers will play 12th-seeded High Point in the first round Thursday. \u201cThe thing I would look at is the series. Especially going into, like, the Sweet 16, a three-game series.\u201d<\/p>\n
His teammate Austin Rapp agreed, saying a three-game series for the Sweet 16, Elite Eight and Final Four \u201cwould be cool.\u201d A five-game championship series was even proposed at one point.<\/p>\n
And yes, the players assured those gathered that they are absolutely in good enough shape to add 15ish extra games to a college schedule that already features 30-something games. Plus, they argued, a three-game series would allow you to \u201cget a better scout on a team\u201d and make March Madness even more competitive.<\/p>\n
In fact, their coach isn\u2019t opposed to it either.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s well thought out,\u201d mused Wisconsin coach Greg Gard. \u201cI\u2019ve always said, you get in this tournament, you can have a really, really good year and a bad 10 minutes and you go home. And everybody talks about the bad 10 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gard pointed out that nearly every other sport, save for college and pro football, plays multi-game series or has something other than a single-elimination format for the postseason. And even football has had its own form of expansion, by adding teams to the postseason.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what\u2019s been on the table for a couple of years when it comes to tweaking the basketball tournaments. Blackwell\u2019s pie-in-the-sky idea aside, if there\u2019s expansion, it\u2019ll come in the form of more teams. An additional eight teams \u2014 bringing the total to 76 \u2014 is the most likely scenario, but expanding to 80 or even 96 teams has also been floated. NCAA president Charlie Baker is on record saying he favors expansion.<\/p>\n