It Keeps Getting Dumber: We Have Our First Report On How A 76-Team NCAA Tournament Bracket Could Look In 2027 And The Greatest Event In Sports Is About To Be Ruined

In case you missed it, the NCAA Tournament is going to expand. It's basically expected to happen in 2027 and we all fucking hate it. I can't stand expansion talk, I think it's ruining the sport and it's ruining the single greatest event sports has to offer. I don't think it's a secret that I love college basketball, probably too much, and that of course runs with the NCAA Tournament. It's why I get riled up whenever I see something about this. I can't just rant to my dog when I'm sitting in my office during the day. I need to bitch to the masses and make sure everyone knows how much they are going to ruin this event. 

Why?

This is the plan for 2027: 

24 teams in the Opening Round, including teams who win their conference tournament. Quite simply, what the fuck are we doing here? I can't stress how much this is ruining the event because look at how it's going to play out. And stay with me here, because it's going to be a lot of explaining on speculation and reporting. You'd have UNC-Wilmington playing St. Francis for a 15 seed instead of St. Francis vs Alabama State like it was this past season. More importantly you have teams like a UNC Wilmington, who gave a scare in a boring round 1 this year, having a chance to get eliminated before we even start the 'real' tournament.

And yes, once we get to 64 teams, it's the real tournament. None of this opening bullshit. The fact is it's set up to eliminate the really good mid-majors as 12 seeds beating 5 seeds or however you want to classify it. We're going to see way more play-in games considering it's 12 lowest AQ's out of 32 conferences. This past year that would include CAA, Sun Belt, MAC, conferences where teams have won and can win first round games. 

You want my dumb brain to fix this? If you win your conference tournament, you make the real bracket, the field of 64. If you're an at-large bid, the bottom 24 teams go to Dayton to play this. Basically you'd have two bubbles and it makes the regular season matter more. You have the bubble to make the tournament and then the bubble to not be in the opening round. Sign me up for that. It keeps conference tournaments mattering more and regular season games mattering more. This past year you'd have the 8 seeds, a 7 seed like Kansas and below all playing in this Opening Round. Fine by me! 

You could do that or just have a brain and not change the greatest event in sports.