I’m not a big basketball fan, but I know my numbers. 65 teams in the NCAA Finals doesn’t work. It has to be a power of 2. And it has always been 64 in the past.
So how did an extra team get into the March Madness, and how will it get eliminated? Or will I have to try to figure out the Final Five?
The NCAA tournament has expanded a lot since 1939 and the number of teams has not always been an even number.
1939-1950 - 8 teams, 1 from each district
1951-1953 - 16 teams, 10 conference champs plus 6 at-large teams
1954-1974 - 24 teams, 15 conference champs plus 9 at-large teams
Since then there have been 32, 40, 48, 53, 64, and now 65 team fields.
If the NCAA were to freeze the field at 64 entrants and continue increasing the number of automatic berths to conference tournament champions, the number of at-large bids would have to decrease. Their solution is to expand the field by one team for each additional automatic bid that is created.
IIRC, in the olden days there weren’t so many conference tournaments and every bid to the NCAA was an at-large bid. IMHO the goal was to have the biggest names and the biggest draws in the tourney and this probably resulted in the best possible field.
Nowadays it seems a team with a losing record in a mediocre yet recognised conference can get “hot” at the last minute, win their tourney and get an automatic bid that “should” have gone to an at-large team with a stronger team and better record. IIRC, one of my many almas maters, Eastern Illinois University, did the very same in 1991. They faced Indiana in the first round and IIRC it was the first shutout in modern NCAA men’s basketball history. 104-0, I do believe, was the final score.
Also wanted to add that the NCAA wants to invited 34 at-large teams each year. So team 65 was added when the Mountain West Conference was formed out of the WAC and became conference #31.