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Nebraska basketball: ACC wants NCAA Tournament expansion

By Oliver VanDervoort

BLOOMINGTON, IN - DECEMBER 28: Head coach Tim Miles of the Nebraska Cornhuskers calls out instructions in the first half against the Indiana Hoosiers at Assembly Hall on December 28, 2016 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
BLOOMINGTON, IN - DECEMBER 28: Head coach Tim Miles of the Nebraska Cornhuskers calls out instructions in the first half against the Indiana Hoosiers at Assembly Hall on December 28, 2016 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /
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The Nebraska basketball team could benefit if a new rule floated by the ACC conference following their annual meetings gets a little more support.

If a recent change to the NCAA tournament had been in effect this season, we might be talking about the Nebraska basketball team and their performance in the Big Dance.

By most accounts, the Huskers weren’t among the first four out. They might not have been even the next four out.

But that would have been up for debate. And if the ACC gets it’s wish, the NCAA Tournament in the very near future will have 72 teams.

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The News Observer reports that the change would basically mean there are two groups of “First Four” teams that would play before the usual Thursday-Friday games.

The proposal for an expansion of the number of teams in the tournament was compared to the number of teams that have a chance at the postseason in college football.

“The idea of having two First Fours, if you will, maybe geographic,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said. “That’s such a quick turnaround. You could have one maybe in Dayton and one in the western part of the states. But we will be proposing that.”

The one drawback to the ACC’s explanation as to why it thinks more teams should be in the tournament is a rather obvious one. The Big Dance is an actual tournament.

Any team in the tournament has a chance, no matter how slim, of winning the National Title. While there are more teams in bowl games than ever before, most have no path to the championship.

The actual college football players at the FBS level is the smallest pool in college sports. Only four teams have a shot at winning it all.

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Despite their rationale being a bit weak, the ACC is going to try and make it so that more teams get a shot at the title. The Nebraska basketball team might want to hop on board that train.

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