I get it. There are three schools of thought here. Some say it should be only for the 16 seeds, but that doesn't make for compelling television for truTV. Others say it should be for the last eight at-larges, and while that's a lot more attractive for Turner, it kind of waters down the field of 64 and makes it easier for the 1s and 2s to advance, plus with eight at-larges coming primarily from the high majors, it does make slotting the field a bit more difficult in that the committee discourages regular season rematches in the First Four and Round of 64 (that if you recall is why we played WYO in the First Four last year, since we had already played ND and RUTG [being a fellow B1G member]).They count as tournament games because they are. They are officially called the First Four, not play in games, and I shouldn’t have used that term. This is not my opinion this is a fact.
Still should be for the 16 spots, but that IS my opinion.
So doing it the way they do it now with the worst four autobids and the last four at-larges, while not the most ideal, is a happy medium.
Well, if you really want to go old-school, the first tourney was only eight teams.The original tournament was 32 teams. By that logic the entire first round doesn’t count