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Message: [QUOTE="shizzle787, post: 4646675, member: 6581"] March Madness is amazing. Conference tournaments are excellent for the most part. However, college basketball's regular season is lacking and does not carry the interest it did 30 years ago. Some of this is demographic changes, but I believe a big reason for dwindling interest in college basketball in the regular season has to do with the following: Consolidation among the major programs into fewer and fewer major conferences (nothing can be done about this) More regular season games than previously Every team qualifying for their conference tournament (for the most part) Expansion to 68 teams (further weakening the bubble) Flood of unprepared programs joining Division 1 weakening the baseline talent average and adding a host of low-major games My solutions: [B]Reduce the regular season to a max of 27 games (whether you play a game in Hawaii or play in a MTE event or not)[/B] -This will make every game mean a little bit more and cut down on the number of body bag games as big leagues likely don't want to cut down on conference games for fear of losing revenue -This will also likely lead to higher attendance averages as there would be about two fewer non-conference home games on average (the scarcity principal) [B]Create a Premier Division above Division 1 with the top-15 brand leagues and 7 others to fill in the map[/B] -This will reduce the number of teams in the top division by somewhere between 60-100 (depending on who gets picked up by one of the other 22 leagues) -This list includes the 15 brand leagues (SEC, ACC, Big 12, Big 10, Big East, Pac-12, A-10, AAC, MW, MVC, WCC, C-USA, Ivy, Sun Belt, and MAC) and 7 additional geographic leagues (Patriot, AE, Summit, Big Sky, Big West, CAA, and SWAC) -This will reduce the number of body bag opponents and raise the overall talent level [B]Return the NCAA tournament back to 64 teams[/B] -With 10 fewer auto bids, this would be a net positive of six additional at-large bids which will keep the top 10-12 leagues happy and still allow for plenty of Cinderella possibilities -Removing the First Four eliminates some of the least watched games in the tournament and creates a strong bubble [B]Eliminate all post-season tournament except for NCAA and NIT[/B] -With the top level shrinking, there won't be a need and likely won't be a market for a third or fourth post-season tournament [B]Capping conference tournaments at 8 teams[/B] -This will increase the value of conference regular seasons in major conferences as the battle for 8th could be life or death for teams in the Big 10 or SEC -This will eliminate first and second rounds that have low attendances and rarely provide a contender (obviously 2011 UConn is an exception) -I would recommend the small conferences only take their top 4 (as the Ivy League does) [B]Increasing home and home conference challenges[/B] -Will provide for better matchups than playing body bag games [/QUOTE]

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