# 65 teams in the NCAA b-ball tourney? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 12, 2001, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/65-teams-in-the-ncaa-b-ball-tourney/57680 "2001-03-12T18:16:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Daytona\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dfb087/32.png) [@Daytona\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daytona_Dave)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/65-teams-in-the-ncaa-b-ball-tourney/57680/1 "2001-03-12T18:16:36Z")
I got the bracket from the NCAA men’s basketball tournement and it shows that Northwestern St. is playing Winthrop on Tues. night to determine who will play No. 1 Illinois on Friday. Why are these two teams playing this game? I didn’t see the selection show on Sun. and I searched USA Today’s website for an explanation. ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/65-teams-in-the-ncaa-b-ball-tourney/57680/2 "2001-03-12T18:33:01Z")
I took a quick look at [ESPN’s web site](http://espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney01/s/2001/0312/1150134.html), and they said, in part: > [@](#): > > Why does the field have 65 teams this year? When the Western Athletic Conference broke up and the Mountain West was created, the number of leagues receiving automatic bids rose to 31. The tournament could either reduce the number of at-large bids to 33 or add one team to the field. It appears that they decided to do the latter, I imagine to keep a deserving at-large team in the tournament. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/65-teams-in-the-ncaa-b-ball-tourney/57680/3 "2001-03-12T22:24:52Z")
The NCAA Men’s tournament agreed that the number of at-large teams should remain at 34. For some reason, coaches seem to think that it is a sacred number of some kind. ---
**Author:** ![jrepka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee59a6/32.png) [@jrepka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrepka)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/65-teams-in-the-ncaa-b-ball-tourney/57680/4 "2001-03-12T22:48:29Z")
'cuz, you know, God forbid the 7th-place team in the Big Ten gets left out…