I don't see any reason for the tournament to be expanded to 128 teams.  We all know that teams 66-128 only want to get in for three reasons.  (1) Money.  There is more money going to your school if you go to the NCAA tourney instead of the NIT.  (2) Prestige and Recruiting.  If you can tell recruits that you have been to "x" number of NCAA tourneys, you can have an easier time recruiting.  (3)  Save the job of the coaches.  If a coach in a big conference fails to make the big dance over a certain time period, they probably will be fired. 

Here's my thoughts for the NCAA basketball coaches.  If you want the money, the prestige, the recruiting advantages, and the job security that comes from making the dance, then make the dance as it is currently set up.  There is a lot more prestige in making a field of 65 teams than there is in making it into a field of 128 teams.

I thought there were 64 teams in the NIT.  That would have been 129.  But I really don't know how many there were in there.

And also, this is a pet peeve of mine, why did the NCAA make a 65th spot?  And why didn't they just offer another conference champion the spot and eliminate an at-large team and keep it 64?  No, they made two of the conference champions play there way in in order to keep the same number of at-large teams.  If they had to have another game, why not make two of the also-rans in a conference play their way in?

 

Isn't that like 307 teams?  The first and second rounds would be terrible!

If you rounded up to 256 (which is the greatest multiple of 64 away from 307), it would only be 2 more games for the entire tournament. 

It doesn't really grab my attention anyway.  But think of the possibilities of upsets.  I think a bunch of folks would still watch it.

Think about this, 256 make the tournament, and the other 51 can automatically fire their coaches.  Its a great compromise.

Here in NC there are so many teams in the high school football playoff that our local high school team made it in with a 3-8 record.  Of course, they played one of the top teams in the state and then it was revealed to the whole state we had a drug problem.

We were drug up and down the field the whole game.

Sometimes making the playoffs is a punishment.

In Ohio, ALL the HS basketball teams make the tournament.  In college, that may be the best alternative, too, if they're going to MAKE an alternative.  But at 65 teams, it has already watered down the importance of the regular season.  There should be an automatic qualifier given to the winner of the conference regular season.  But what do you do with the conference tournaments?  There's too much money being made by everybody to abandon that cash cow.  I propose holding them in the preseason like November or December.  Seeding could be based on how they finished the prior regular season.  Who wants to see Duke and N. Carolina battle it out for a third time in March when they're both going to the NCAA the next weekend anyway.