Hockey sends 12 of 45 DivI teams to the tourney, or 26.7%. Basketball sends 64 of somewhere between 250 and 300 teams (21.3-25.6%); I thought it was 254 or 264. At any rate, hockey is currently sending a larger percentage of its DivI teams to the NC$$ tourney than hoop. Expanding to 16 teams won't solve anything. The controversy would just switch to being between #16 and 17. Some said that expanding from 8 to 12 would eliminate the controversy then, and it is clear that it hasn't been eliminated at all. So this is not a good reason for going from 12 to 16 teams, IMO. Not that I agree with this...but how about an open tournament? With 45 DivI teams this season, give byes to the top 19 and let the remaining 26 play a single-game first rounder. That gives us 32 teams left. Send 8 teams to each of four regional sites and you can determine a regional winner in one weekend, maybe four days: Thur: 8 vs 1, 5 vs 4 Fri: 6 vs 3, 7 vs 2 Sat: 8-1/5-4 winners, 6-3/7-2 winners Sun: regional final Regional winners advance to the final four the next weekend. This or some variation can be done in three weekends. But, you STILL have the problem of how to seed teams... - mike