The NCAA basketball tournament is one of the most exciting playoffs in all of sports. Sixty-five teams are given a chance to work through the bracket and claim the national championship. I think most would agree that 16th seed Portland State doesn't have a chance to beat number one seed Kansas let alone make it to the championship game, but don't tell that to the Vikings. They don't just show up to lose. They are there to win some games and put their school on the map. So why not give more teams a chance?

The other day I was thinking about how the NCAA had added the play-in game a couple of years ago. This year it is Mount St. Mary's against Coppin State, the first 20 loss team to ever make it to the tournament. Why is there only one play-in game? If the NCAA is going to even have a play-in game which includes only one more team to the tournament, then why not have four play-in games which would expand the field from 65 to 68 teams. That would include teams this year such as Arizona State and Virginia Tech who were on outside of the bubble looking in after selection Sunday.

As I was lost in deep contemplation on the thought while watching ESPN I was abruptly brought back to the real world when I heard former coach Bobby Night mention that he thinks the field should be expanded to 128 teams, completely doubling the current field of 64. With a field this large, you would never leave any team out that deserves a chance to play in the tournament and you would be including all of the bubble teams that feel they should be included. Each conference tournament champion would still get an automatic bid, but it would not ruin the chance for some of the bubble teams to advance to the post season.

Now my mind was really beginning to churn. I went into work on Monday afternoon and brought up the idea of expanding the field with one of our sales representatives Vern Gray. He brought up a good point. With the field expanded to 128 teams, there would be no need for the NIT post season tournament. That's when the light turned on over our heads. We decided that the losers in the first round of the new expanded NCAA tournament would get the invitations to play in the NIT tournament. The NIT tournament would then become a consolation bracket of sorts for the teams that just aren't fit to be contenders for the national championship.

Here is the real question though. Is 128 teams too many? Yes it would include every single team that is deserving of a spot in the NCAA Tournament, but it would also include a good chunk of teams that don't even deserve to play in the post season at all. There are a total of 341 schools in Division I basketball and that is including the Division I independants as well. 128 Teams wouldn't even be half the total field. It might be too large of a jump already for next year, but I believe that a great place to start would be by at least adding those three extra play-in games expanding the field to 68, then we can go from there.

What are your thoughts? Leave me a comment in the space provided above and we could even start a dialogue. And just for the sake of making predictions, here are the teams I have selected to be in this year's Final Four:  (1)North Carolina, (2)Georgetown, (1)UCLA, (2)Texas. UCLA will play against North Carolina in the championship game with North Carolina winning the entire tournament.

SLEEPERS: (4) Pittsburgh, (7) Butler, (5) Drake.