We Are Once Again Begging For Stupidity Not To Win After The ACC Commish Says 'It's Time To Look At Expanding The NCAA Tournament'

So yesterday was ACC Media Day and once again I'm here to beg for people not to be stupid. It's asking a lot these days but it's my beg and I will write this blog every single time it's in the news. I will do whatever it takes (I'm not chaining myself to a statue, that doesn't work out well) for it not to happen. Here's what Phillips said:

[Source] - "It's the crown jewel of all of our championships," Phillips told ESPN. "There's nothing that really duplicates it, on both sides, on the men's side and the women's side. So you have to be respectful of not messing it up, either, and understand it's in a really good, healthy place. But you also have to continue to be progressive, and I try to think about those things in that way.

Uhh yeah dude. You think? It's the crown jewel because it's basically perfect. I could do without the First Four, but it's the perfect setup to determine a champion. 64 teams (fuck the First Four really), seeded 1-16, all over 3 weeks. There's nothing wrong with it! If you can admit it's the crown jewel then there's no reason to fuck it all up. Want to be respectful of not messing it up? Easy. Don't touch it. Let people who love the sport talk about it. Maybe younger people who love the sport because this is terrifying too: 

Larranaga would like to see all 32 conference champions receive byes, while 64 at-large teams play in the first round.

"I've been a proponent of expanding the NCAA tournament for a long time," he said. "If you look at the mission of college basketball, the NCAA tournament is the culmination of every player's dream. But if you look at the history, it's always the same teams with a few exceptions. So expanding the tournament to 96, it really should have gone from 64 to 96."

Jim, I love you man, but this is awful. You get into the NCAA Tournament by winning a conference championship. You shouldn't be rewarded more than that. We're really going to give like Texas Southern a bye over the 2 seed from the Big 12? Come on. Every team has the right to make the NCAA Tournament. Win your conference. It's that simple. We don't need 96 teams in the NCAA Tournament. We just don't. 

Boeheim would like to see the First Four in Dayton be expanded to every first-round site, which would allow the tournament to still fall within its typical three-week window.

"I advocated this 25 years ago," he said. "There's three times more good [programs] than when we had 48 teams in the tournament. Putting money in, good schools. It's not a hard expansion. The argument I've heard is that it dilutes the tournament, which is nonsense. It actually makes the tournament better. … You have better teams in the tournament than you would before."

I just assume this is Boeheim saying it because the man lives on the bubble. And no better teams wouldn't be in the Tournament. The 72nd team isn't a good team. If they were good they'd already be in! It's so simple fellas. Be better. Win games. That's it. That's the argument. 

I know it comes to money. That's all people want in college sports. Commissioners want to make as much money as possible. I get it. But don't ruin my NCAA Tournament. Don't ruin the greatest 3 week stretch in sports. You want to play in the big dance, win games. If you can't win enough games you don't belong in. If you want to tweak it so we stop having Athletic Directors determine who is in, fine. There should be a dedicated bracket group who has the sole job of paying attention to teams and seeding them. 

Save the NCAA Tournament. Don't let stupidity win out.