On the surface, it looks like the dream scenario for a mid-major. Add 32 teams to the Tournament, add 32 more Cinderella contenders, make the postseason that much more special.

Dig deeper, though, and you realize the expansion would mean the exact opposite. The big reason:

MAJOR CONFERENCE BIAS

These 32 teams won’t be Hofstra, won’t be Lafayette, won’t be Stony Brook, and won’t be Jacksonville. It will be Virginia Tech, and Rhode Island, and North Carolina, and Miami.

The bursted “Bubble” teams are more often than not, Majors that were beat up in conference, and saw their resume plummet as a result. You don’t see heartbreak on the face of Howard for getting snubbed - you see a decent team like Miami upset that their loss to Duke prevented them from making the Tournament.

The result? Average major teams taking out Cinderella possibilites. This year, you would see Ohio as a 22-seed playing against 11th-seeded Dayton getting their butts kicked. Old Dominion would be taking on North Carolina, preventing them from having a chance to knock off Notre Dame. And Cornell? They could have ended up with a date against Virginia Tech, possibly derailing them from ever getting a shot at Kentucky in the Sweet 16. Point?

You expand the Tournament, you add more teams with more $$ to recruit more talent, not more Horizon Leaguers or CAAers, but average SECers, ACCers and Pac-10ers.

So please, let’s keep it at 64. Because in college, 64>96.