Interesting Tweets

[wsushox1]

From Joe Lunardi......

Looking for two BracketBusters match ups to emerge from this weekend: Siena at Butler and ODU at Northern Iowa. All pairings set on Monday.

Sounds like Siena and Butler is a done deal. We will have to wait for sure

And from Andy Glockner who is a sports writer at SI

If true, it's disgraceful. We can't even have a good 65-team event this year. RT @SPORTSbyBROOKS: ESPN source: 96-team NCAAs is "done deal."

Remember these are tweets and are far from official, but if the 96 team NCAA Field is a done deal then so help me god.......

Also RT means Re-Tweet so he didn't write it. Just take it for what its worth.

http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/source-march-madness-with-96-teams-done-deal-27742

[shockerfan]

SalukiMedia BracketBusters: Drexel at BU, Loyola (Ill.) at CU, DU at CS-Northridge, UIC at UE, Morehead State at ILS, INS at UWGB (UNI, WSU, MSU TBA)

[wsushox1]

From CAA Sports:

RT @CAASports: Mason, NU, ODU, VCU and W&M chosen for TV games in BracketBusters. Tune in at 6:30 p.m. tonight on ESPNU to find out matc ...

If we get VCU apparently it would be a TV game.

[WSUShokker]

It might be better to get VCU and get on TV versus Utah State and possibly not getting on TV and not getting some "EAST COAST BIAS"

[shockerfan]

It might be better to get VCU and get on TV versus Utah State and possibly not getting on TV and not getting some "EAST COAST BIAS"

The fact that WSU's bracketbuster hasn't been announced but 7 other Valley team's has indicates a good possibility we will get a TV game regardless of the opponent. This stuff is already set...we just have to wait to hear the "official" word. UNI, MSU and WSU haven't been announced because they are waiting for the 5:30pm "show" on ESPNU.

I still hope we don't get Utah St though.

[wsushox1]

It might be better to get VCU and get on TV versus Utah State and possibly not getting on TV and not getting some "EAST COAST BIAS"

The fact that WSU's bracketbuster hasn't been announced but 7 other Valley team's has indicates a good possibility we will get a TV game regardless of the opponent. This stuff is already set...we just have to wait to hear the "official" word. UNI, MSU and WSU haven't been announced because they are waiting for the 5:30pm "show" on ESPNU.

I still hope we don't get Utah St though.

I am almost positive we are getting VCU, I could be way wrong though.

The reason I think we are getting VCU is the CAA is getting 5 TV games I think, that's alot! It just makes sense.

[shockerfan]

It might be better to get VCU and get on TV versus Utah State and possibly not getting on TV and not getting some "EAST COAST BIAS"

The fact that WSU's bracketbuster hasn't been announced but 7 other Valley team's has indicates a good possibility we will get a TV game regardless of the opponent. This stuff is already set...we just have to wait to hear the "official" word. UNI, MSU and WSU haven't been announced because they are waiting for the 5:30pm "show" on ESPNU.

I still hope we don't get Utah St though.

I am almost positive we are getting VCU, I could be way wrong though.

The reason I think we are getting VCU is the CAA is getting 5 TV games I think, that's alot! It just makes sense.

I hope you are right. If Butler is getting Siena...then I think that would be the next best game for us to play.

[wsushox1]

Utah State would be a better RPI game but the VCU game would be more winnable. At this point........Just Win Baby!!

[RoyalShock]

Regarding the 96-team NCAA tournament . . .

If true, it just got easier for the BcS'ers. I suspect the top 8 seeds in each region will get first-round byes. And just how many non-BcS teams typically get a top-8 seed?

I'm sure you'll see a few upsets in the round-of-64, but the era of Cinderella will be all but over.

[WSUShokker]

Its obviously not about fairness....I know the CAA is comfortably located on the edge of the ditch but 5 TV games is a bit over the top. It does cut down on the travel for espn crews I would guess. I would hope then that its VCU. Utah State while a better RPI for us doesent bode well for national exposure....

[TxShox]

Four teams from the WAC will be televised [source]

Four teams from the Western Athletic Conference have been selected to participated in BracketBusters ESPN television games. Louisiana Tech, Nevada, New Mexico State and Utah State will each participate in one of the 11 available ESPN network games. The matchups for the four teams will be announced today on ESPNU at 6:30 p.m. ET

The other five WAC teams that were not selected to compete in a BracketBusters television game will play non-conference opponents on Saturday, Feb. 20. Those matchups are as follows:

UC Santa Barbara at Fresno State
San Jose State at Montana State
Long Beach State at Idaho
UC Davis at Boise State
Cal Poly at Hawai'i

The eighth annual BracketBusters event, a two-day men's college basketball extravaganza pitting potential NCAA Tournament hopefuls against each other Feb. 19-20, will feature 11 nationally televised games-on either ESPN2 or ESPNU-selected from a pool of 98 teams. For the fifth straight year, ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network, will televise five BracketBusters games while ESPN2 will televise six contests. The 11 BracketBusters matchups will be announced today on ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network, at 6:30 p.m. ET.

[HockeyShock]

Regarding the 96-team NCAA tournament . . .

If true, it just got easier for the BcS'ers. I suspect the top 8 seeds in each region will get first-round byes. And just how many non-BcS teams typically get a top-8 seed?

I'm sure you'll see a few upsets in the round-of-64, but the era of Cinderella will be all but over.

Although I doubt it would go into effect this year, the only way they could pull the scheduling for that off is if they used campus sites for the play-in games, I find it interesting that this is suddenly being fast-tracked (apparently) this year, when there's questionable justification for including UNC in the field of 65.

If the field does expand, I wonder how long it will take before we see our first team with a losing record admitted? I've already seen Big East and ACC teams with win totals in the teens get bids, although they may have been conference tourney champs. I'd have to check on that.

I agree with you, Royal - this would make March Madness truly the basketball equivalent of the BCS. They can't actually form their own cabal at this point because the backlash would be tremendous, so instead they introduce a mechanism to weed-out the low- and mid-major auto-bids from the field of 64. Add to that the effects of travel and fatigue and that makes higher seeded teams that much more likely to win in the round-of-64. Now it's not enough that the #16-seed only has four days to prepare for one of the highest seeds, they'll have to win against a much more evenly-matched team first.

If they're going to do this, and if RPI is going to be such a factor in figuring out who gets what seed, then I think the NCAA should mandate BCS schools to schedule home-and-homes with non-BCS schools for their OOC. Not some trivial number either, and not just cupcakes. I'm thinking 3/4 of the OOC should be non-BCS games, to reflect the approximate ratio of BCS schools to non-BCS. Of those, 1/2 should be opponents who finished in the top half of their respective leagues. That would keep Duke from just scheduling Evansville every year.

No, it won't happen, but it should.

:clap: :wsu_posters: :yahoo: :clap:

Edit: Because I used BCS one fewer time than I needed. :whistle:

[vbird53]

Regarding the 96-team NCAA tournament . . .

If true, it just got easier for the BcS'ers. I suspect the top 8 seeds in each region will get first-round byes. And just how many non-BcS teams typically get a top-8 seed?

I'm sure you'll see a few upsets in the round-of-64, but the era of Cinderella will be all but over.

Although I doubt it would go into effect this year, the only way they could pull the scheduling for that off is if they used campus sites for the play-in games, I find it interesting that this is suddenly being fast-tracked (apparently) this year, when there's questionable justification for including UNC in the field of 65.

If the field does expand, I wonder how long it will take before we see our first team with a losing record admitted? I've already seen Big East and ACC teams with win totals in the teens get bids, although they may have been conference tourney champs. I'd have to check on that.

I agree with you, Royal - this would make March Madness truly the basketball equivalent of the BCS. They can't actually form their own cabal at this point because the backlash would be tremendous, so instead they introduce a mechanism to weed-out the low- and mid-major auto-bids from the field of 64. Add to that the effects of travel and fatigue and that makes higher seeded teams that much more likely to win in the round-of-64. Now it's not enough that the #16-seed only has four days to prepare for one of the highest seeds, they'll have to win against a much more evenly-matched team first.

If they're going to do this, and if RPI is going to be such a factor in figuring out who gets what seed, then I think the NCAA should mandate BCS schools to schedule home-and-homes with non-BCS schools for their OOC. Not some trivial number either, and not just cupcakes. I'm thinking 3/4 of the OOC should be non-BCS games, to reflect the approximate ratio of BCS schools to non-BCS. Of those, 1/2 should be opponents who finished in the top half of their respective leagues. That would keep Duke from just scheduling Evansville every year.

No, it won't happen, but it should.

:clap: :wsu_posters: :yahoo: :clap:

Edit: Because I used BCS one fewer time than I needed. :whistle:

This potential change would be for the future, not this year.

[Aargh]

Let's see - the bowl series in football is hopelessly flawed, but that's untouchable.

Basketball is not broken, but it must be fixed.

Oh, wait - I get it - it's already impossible for there to be a "Cinderella" in football. I guess that little loophole had to be closed for basketball too.

[wsushox1]

Time to make the NIT the more premier tournament again?

Doubt it will ever happen but...............would not suprise me if 50 years down the line it was.