Now that the NCAA has all but decided they are expanding the basketball tournament to 96 teams, there are rumors swirling that they are looking at the women's tournament now (nothing is on the horizon, but the NCAA is looking into it).
Please don't.
First off, are there 96 teams worthy of getting into the tournament? In the 2010 women's tournament, only four of the 32 opening round games were won by the worse-seeded team. Only four upsets. Four.
And in some of the wins, there were nice margins of victory. UConn won by 56 points. Nebraska won by 39. Iowa State won by 37. Duke won by 35. Ohio State won by 34. Tennessee won by 33. Stanford won by 32. Texas A&M won by 31. Notre Dame won by 28. Do we really need to add more teams to this slaughter?
It isn't just the first round. The second round saw 9 of the 16 games decided by double digits. Half of the Sweet 16 games were decided by at least 10 points. Even the Elite Eight saw a 20-point win by Oklahoma and a 40-point win by UConn.
Here's another reason the women's tournament shouldn't expand: nobody may care about it anymore. With the men's tournament up for bids, ESPN/ABC could take on the lucrative property. With the scheduling plans for that tournament, there certainly is no room on the network for the women's tournament. ESPN/ABC will use all its resources to attempt to program every single men's tournament game on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNClassic, ESPN News, ESPN+, ESPN3 and the ESPN Alternative channels.
And, sorry, I don't see a major network taking it on. The event would most likely end up on either Versus or the host of women's-based networks (Lifetime, Oxygen, We). No matter where they go, they won't get the advertising splash that ESPN gave them and, to be sure, a lot less people will be watching. Then the women's game will be treated by ESPN similar to the NHL -- we used to care when we had the rights to televise it but it isn't worth our time anymore.
And that happens even if the women's tournament doesn't expand.
So, it's stupid. But then again so is the 96-team men's bracket and we all know how that turned out.
Please don't.
First off, are there 96 teams worthy of getting into the tournament? In the 2010 women's tournament, only four of the 32 opening round games were won by the worse-seeded team. Only four upsets. Four.
And in some of the wins, there were nice margins of victory. UConn won by 56 points. Nebraska won by 39. Iowa State won by 37. Duke won by 35. Ohio State won by 34. Tennessee won by 33. Stanford won by 32. Texas A&M won by 31. Notre Dame won by 28. Do we really need to add more teams to this slaughter?
It isn't just the first round. The second round saw 9 of the 16 games decided by double digits. Half of the Sweet 16 games were decided by at least 10 points. Even the Elite Eight saw a 20-point win by Oklahoma and a 40-point win by UConn.
Here's another reason the women's tournament shouldn't expand: nobody may care about it anymore. With the men's tournament up for bids, ESPN/ABC could take on the lucrative property. With the scheduling plans for that tournament, there certainly is no room on the network for the women's tournament. ESPN/ABC will use all its resources to attempt to program every single men's tournament game on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNClassic, ESPN News, ESPN+, ESPN3 and the ESPN Alternative channels.
And, sorry, I don't see a major network taking it on. The event would most likely end up on either Versus or the host of women's-based networks (Lifetime, Oxygen, We). No matter where they go, they won't get the advertising splash that ESPN gave them and, to be sure, a lot less people will be watching. Then the women's game will be treated by ESPN similar to the NHL -- we used to care when we had the rights to televise it but it isn't worth our time anymore.
And that happens even if the women's tournament doesn't expand.
So, it's stupid. But then again so is the 96-team men's bracket and we all know how that turned out.
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