Article:Gotta say no to Knight's idea of adding teams to the NCAA Tournament

Robert Montgomery Knight. Chairs fear him. Whips are close friends. He can be a bit surly at times and sometimes has a bedside manner that makes the Nazis look like Carmelite nuns. He wins, I will grant him that. He knows the game of basketball, for that he'll get points from me.

He advocated (or almost advocated) yesterday on ESPN that the NCAA Men's Tournament field be expanded, doubled to 128 teams. This is where we cross swords. I think this is a bad idea for four good, if not compelling, reasons.

1. Logistics. Most teams do not play their games on campus. Cases in point: Georgetown, Memphis, Southern California and Memphis. They share arenas with NBA teams that may be using the facility on the nights when these teams are playing. It's also a nightmare for fans that have to travel great distances to see their teams play.

2. It would interfere with the NIT.

3. A tournament of this nature would be a scheduling nightmare, not just for the schools but for the networks that want to cover the games. Plus, most schools are out for Spring Break during this time. Plus, officials from neutral conferences would have to work the games.

4. The NCAA was forced to change from the old 48 team format to 64. It's not broken, coach. Please don't fix it.

I say the 64 (er, 65) team field is just fine. If anything, the selection process needs to be tweaked and if that means kicking the RPI to the curb, then so be it. I never understood it anyway. It makes the infield fly rule sound simple.

Yes, Coach Knight, you can drive 65. (Apologies to Sammy Hagar.)