Your solution makes sense EXCEPT that if a team loses in the first round, what is the inventive to keep playing? The moment the buzzer goes off, half of losing teams rosters will be on their phones talking to their agents and entering the portal.
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A vaguely related side note - I’ve always found it interesting that Santa Clara’s all time 11-13 NCAA record includes three times where we played in either the national or regional 3rd place game!
Imagine trying to get modern players engaged to do that.
I like your idea of expansion to 96, but I don’t see that happening even within the next 10 years. An increase to 72 seems most likely in the next few years.
Also, I agree with Weave on losing teams being sent to play in the NIT. There is no incentive for players and I don’t really think fans (betting aside) will care much. Many will have an eye on the transfer portal to maximize their value as it becomes more about “me” than “we”.
I see a couple of ways to make it work:
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make it a part of kids’ contracts;
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put in a financial reward for players if team finishes in top 3;
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deal with it by doing what they do now, which is to fill the spots of decliners with other teams;
It’s better than what we have today.
From Lunardi’s bracketology commentary today:
“Other notable results: Important home wins for Seton Hall and Santa Clara, both among the First Four Out, were unfortunately not enough to move them up ahead of narrow road losers USC and Texas; the latter two remain among the Last Four In.”
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SCU up to the last team in for this particular bracket:
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Couple of important games this morning at 10AM Pacific:
- SDSU @ Utah St on CBS
- DePaul @ Xavier on FS1
I feel like it’s a bit early to play a game at 11AM local time in Utah! 10AM body clock time for the boys from SD!
Bracket Matrix gives a composite of over 100 “bracketologists” to determine the consensus picks. As of this morning, SCU is the “second team out” after Texas. Almost 25% of brackets include SCU, but the line for inclusion is roughly 40% at the moment (Indiana being the last team in).
Just keep winning. As we’ve said, every game from here is “the most important game in 20+ years.”
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I think these both went our way!
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Yep. And a couple of other games in progress that are good for SCU:
- ASU pacing Arizona. ASU doesn’t need to win (and SCU probably would rather they don’t lest they move into bubble territory). But a close loss keeps ASU floating in the Q2 range for Santa Clara.
- tOSU down double digits against Wisconsin. The Buckeyes are right with SCU on the bubble. Many apologies to Tilly, but Santa Clara wants Ohio State to lose as much as possible from here.
- Negative Result: Seton Hall beats Marquette at home. Marquette is not good this year, so this won’t really make a big difference for Seton Hall either way. But SCU could use Holloway’s Pirates losing a bit more to move them down the bubble line.
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No need to apologize to someone who bailed on us, despite his starter status. 
Still early, but NIU is beating Miami(OH). Even though M-OH is undefeated, they have an incredibly weak schedule. Most pundits are saying that to get into the Big Dance, they’ll need to run the table and then either win the conference championship or get to the final and lose only to Akron (a loss to any other team would likely drop them out).
Cal is playing at Miami(FL). We need the ‘Canes to beat the Bears.
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I think you could make argument bears beating the Canes is good. May push Miami to the bubble.
This thread kills me because it’s still only january.
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Well….it will be February tomorrow :).
But, agree. It’s kind of early, they’ll be a few teams that many are showing as 8-10 seeds who will struggle down the stretch and a team or two with little mention today who end up making it.
Give it another 2 weeks and this discussion will be more relevant and get interesting.
When it’s been so long without consideration for an at-large bid that the modern internet didn’t exist the last time around, and given the clock may strike midnight on our chances, I say let us all enjoy it while it’s here!
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I agree. Cherish every day that we have an active thread called “Bracketology” around these parts.
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Every time the ESPN ticker scrolls by with “Santa Clara” in the Next Four Out or Last Four Out or whatever it is, someone may be seeing the name for the first time (or an Alumni might be seeing it for the first time in a long time, and so on). And they’re seeing it alongside names like Stanford, Ohio State, etc.
It’s great stuff for this community
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I watched the Ohio state game - tilly looks lost . At the top of key mostly - no shots . How much are they paying him ?? $1m??
Don’t get me wrong, I think about making the first weekend of march madness basically every single day. But seeing all the permutations in written text gives me the case of the jinxes
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