This year, for the first time, I found myself with the free time to (theoretically) watch the entire first round, and in all honesty, I was just a bit disappointed with the experience. You may suggest that I might have felt differently had I shelled out the $4 to be able to watch all the games online instead of being limited to what was airing on CBS (I don’t have cable), or had I been watching the games with a group instead of by myself, but I say that you’re underthinking things, and in the spirit of public improvement, I offer a few suggestions on how the single greatest competition in major American sports can be made even more exciting.
1. More elimination
Where else do you get to see so many grown men crying?
Wouldn’t it be even more exciting if the field didn’t just get smaller ever round, but the game itself got smaller? You could start with full-court games in the first round, and then half-court games in the second. The sweet sixteen would be 3-on-3, and the elite eight 1-on-1. The final four would be two games of H-O-R-S-E, and the national championship would be a slam dunk contest. Awesome.
2. More surprises
Admit it. You still don't remember their name. But they killed your bracket.
Even so, the South and West divisions still find their #1, 3, and 4 seeds playing in the sweet sixteen, and the East has its #1, 2, and 4 seeds still alive. Eleven of the sixteen teams playing in the third round are exactly who should still be playing based on the initial seeding. Having five upstarts is great, but we can do better.
How? With a secret extra play-in round where 32 teams play for the right to face the sweet sixteen in surprise matchups! Lehigh may have beaten Duke, but can they beat, um, Oakland University? Perennial power North Carolina paired up against the University of Chicago!3
3. Total madness
People, we can make this happen.
I’m telling you, people, we are limited only by our imaginations.
—
1. Registered trademark of the NCAA
2. Even though the NCAA officially expanded the play-in game(s) from two teams to sixteen this year, and relabeled those games “the first round,” I refuse to acknowledge such a travesty until a single play-in team wins a single game in the actual tournament. Then I’ll think about it.
3. The University of Chicago doesn’t have a basketball team, you say? That’s what makes it a surprise.
—
Gavin Craig is co-editor of The Idler. You can follow him on Twitter at @craiggav, where he is live-tweeting the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament using the #SnarkMadness hashtag.
]]>