The NCAA decision last week to expand the men’s basketball tournament from 65 to 68 teams was well-received, if for no other reason than it meant no 96-team anarchy just yet. If other sports are a guide, while expansion generally works out, eventually some sort of rational limit will be reached:
NFL playoffs
The decision to go from one wild card team to two in 1978 was intelligent and savvy — it added a week of games before the divisional playoffs — but going from two to three wild card teams in 1990 was genius. Now the NFL enjoys consecutive January weekends in which playoff doubleheaders dominate the sports landscape on both Saturday and Sunday.
As for the downside: There isn’t one for the NFL. But the BCS just doesn’t get it.
MLB postseason
The wild card arrived in 1995 (following 1994’s cancelled postseason), the second year in which realignment created three divisions in each league. The first change in format since 1969 was and is difficult for some traditionalists to accept.
But the wild card may deserve more credit than ESPN for stoking the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry, which buoyed the league for much of the last decade. Since 1995, the American League East has more divisional series appearances (26) than any of the other five (the NL West is second with 21).
The only downside is that unless MLB shortens the regular season, it can’t expand further, otherwise baseball players will be in parkas on Thanksgiving.
World Cup
Only 16 teams were in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. The number was 24 when the United States set the attendance record (69,000 per match) for the massive tournament in 1994, and it grew to the current 32 teams for the 1998 edition in France.
The growth has helped boost the World Cup’s international appeal, as the additional spots allow more teams from Africa, Asia and North America to participate. Figuring out who advances to the knockout rounds is also easier; only the top two teams from each of eight groups will go through.
But while South Korea made a surprising semifinal appearance in 2002, minnows like New Zealand and North Korea have been allowed entry just to get overrun, while traditional European and South American powers walk home with the title.
