Commentary: Change due in method used to pick NCAA teams

I’ve long been an advocate of expanding the NCAA tournament to as many teams as possible, but after listening to a weekend of “bracketologists” on television, I think I’d rather cut it back to conference champions and let it go at that.

All of a sudden, winning 20-25 games isn’t enough. The RPI doesn’t mean anything if it doesn’t fit the “look” test. Losing a bad game early hurts more than finishing a season by winning 7 out of 8 games.

What’s going on here? Nothing seems to count unless it fits your notion of who you think should be the best team.

I mean, North Carolina has always been good, so let’s throw them in there with a .500 record.

If you really want to make the process easier, force the big schools to go on the road a little more during their pre-conference schedules. Let’s see how good they really are.

And don’t give me any of this baloney those schools have to make money by playing home games. Television pays them enough to play a decent road game once in awhile.

Maybe the fifth-place team in the Big Ten is better than the second-place team in the Horizon League, but if you finish fifth in the Big Ten, how are you going to win the national championship and why should you be allowed to try?

Either let them all in, or just conference champions. The way it is makes no sense.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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