Championship Week

I love championship week. I guess this really isn't technically championship week because that is still 4 weeks away, the weekend of the NCAA Final Four. But it is exciting to watch all these basketball teams in do-or-die desperation situations that are trying to play their way in to the tournament. That stated, I do think the time has come to do away with championship week. Because I think the NCAA tournament should be opened up to all Division I schools. No bids. Everyone is in. Everyone has a shot. No crying and moping around for the two or three schools who get ripped off and have to play in a meaningless NIT tournament. Everyone gets in and gets their shot.

All teams would be ranked. Brackets would then be set up based on the rankings just as they are now. Some teams would get first round byes and others wouldn't, because there aren't a perfect number of teams to fill a "perfect bracket". But, you want to talk about March Madness? Every team in. Every game after the conference regular season schedule would mean something. No more meaningless ACC tournament championship games with two teams that are going to the NCAA tournament anyway. And the regular season would mean something again, because those that won their regular season conference would obviously get a better seed. Everybody loves the "Cinderella" teams. There'd be a lot more of these teams in the tournament.

So why not make a good thing better? Every team in. You lose, you're out. Exciting, to the max, no?