I hear that this is the "hottest" new way change the NCAA tournament.
It is a combination double AND single elimination tournament to reduce
the field from 12 to 4 teams.
 
First, two neutral sites (East and West). At each site, there are 2
groupings (afternoon and evening) of 3 teams each. One team out of
these 3 in a group will advance to the final 4.
 
The 1-4 seeds in each region will have 2 chances to win to advance to
the quarterfinals. If they win the first night, they get day 2 off and
will play on day 3. If they lose on day 1, they get a second shot on
day 2 against a #5 or #6 seed.  If they win on day 2, they play AGAIN
on day 3 in the quarterfinals.
 
The #5 and #6 seeds have only 1 chance to make it to the quarters: if
they lose, they go home.
 
It goes something like this:
 
                       East                        West
 
Day 1 (afternoon)      East #1 vs West #4          West #1 vs East #4
      (evening)        East #2 vs West #3          West #2 vs East #3
 
Day 2 (afternoon)      Aftnoon loser vs East #5   Aftnoon loser vs West #5
      (evening)        Eve loser vs East #6       Eve loser vs West #6
 
[quarterfinals, from 8 down to 4 teams]
Day 3 (afternoon)      Day 1 aft. winner vs       Day 1 aft. winner vs
                           Day 2 aft. winner          Day 2 aft. winner
      (evening)        Day 1 eve. winner vs       Day 1 eve. winner vs
                           Day 2 eve. winner          Day 2 eve. winner
 
The 4 winners on Day 3 advance to the semifinals. Actually, the old-style
brackets would be preserved here. One winner from the E1/W4/E5 group, for
example. This year, tho, we have W4 hosting E5 with the winner going to E1.
 
Confusing, no?
 
Keith [log in to unmask]