Whats the point of the NCAA Tournament?
Personally, I think it’s to figure out which team is playing best at the end of the season, and declare them the national champion. But there’s some good evidence that the tournament’s huge popularity is not because it picks a champion, but because there are lots of upsets and Cinderellas. In that case, it might be more popular to include more smaller teams and worse teams, since odds are that one or two of them will win a game or two and keep all the Cinderella-lovers happy. [Disclosure: my wife thinks I’m nuts because in a game where I don’t have a rooting interest, I’ll usually root for the better team because I like to see teams get what they “deserve”. She says (correctly) that I’m weird, since most people like to root for the underdog.] You mentioned the BCS in your question, and it seems to me that the BCS has struck a compromise on these issues. The main purpose of the BCS is to determine a national champion by having the two best teams play each other, and (as a side issue) to
