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Sales tales right on target Bill King's article on the ticket sales comb ine [March 15-21] was the best piece I have ever read in SBJ. Reading abo ut the trials How you see it and tribulations of Bill and the other participants made me laugh to tears. Wehave all been there. And yes, we hate that survey guy, too. Jon Schmieder Phoenix Schmiederis presidentof thePhoenixRegionalSports Commission. LET US HEAR FROM YOU Street & Smith's SportsBusinessJournal welcomes lettersfromreadersonanytopicthatismakingheadlines intheworld of sports business. Letters must besigned andmust include thewriter's cityandstate.Pleaseincludeadaytimetelephonenurnberforverification purposesonly.Alllettersaresubject to standard editingfor style,grammar andlength. Addressto: Letters, Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal, 1'lfJw. MoreheadSt,Suite310,Charlotte,NC28202. By e-mail:letters@sportsbusinessjournal.com How to infuse hope in the Big Dance ow do we create an expan ded national NCAA basketball tournament with flair witho ut either diluting the ELDON L. regular seaso n HAM into oblivion or reducing the first round of the tournament to an embarrassing slaugh ter fest of "24seeds " aga inst the goliaths of Division I basketball? Simpl e: start the Big Dance with a Cin derella Dan ce. Whether to expand the NCAA basketball tournament from its 65team form at is a question that gains momentum each year. But with the likes of North Carolina, UCLAand Connecticut out of the tournament altogether in 2010, it begs for a solution more than ever. The answer is at once simple, easy, and a TV bonanza. And it is hiding in plain sight the NIT.Reserve up to four NCAA slots for the final four of the NIT and suddenly there are more Cinderellas , more up-and -comers, and more teams with momentum, not to mention more ratings, money and fan int erest. Sports as entertainment are all about selling hope. With the NIT suddenly infused with relevance. it will mean mu ch more than just a shot at the penultimate NIT tin medal. Keep 32 team s in the NIT, but now give them all a second chance of making the NCAA tourname nt. It only tak es three layers of games to whittle a 32-team field down to the final four. It could all be done in as H II I MARCH 29 -APRIL 4 . 20 10 little as six days or, if necessary, a day or two more. This way th ere will be no artificial weak sisters playin g Kansas or Duke. yet 92or 93team s will have hope. Forget the NIT cham pionship game; who cares? Not even the winner s care. Take the battle-tested last four teams standing, and give them a really meaningful prize: four slots in the NCAA. It would be both interest ing an d convenient to give all four team s the 16th seed. The top NCAA seeds would all play against proven team s with momentum. sett ing the stage for much more relevant, if not exciting games. But if "protec ting" the NO seeds is an over r iding con.1 cern, rese rve the 12th or 14th slots instead, a little harder logisti cally, but possibly more appropriate. Either way, a true Cin dere lla might stay hot and have a genu ine chance in the NCAA tournament. Moreover, some down-on-their lu ck powerh ouses would suddenly have one final shot at relevance: enter UCLA and North Carolina, for example. Wouldn't the networks and the NCAA like to claw back those big-school viewers - and their wallets - for a few games? But wha t about the incumbent problems and logistics. like fatigue'? Could four NIT team s play three games in six days? It only tak es five days to do three games with two days' rest between each, so six days would provide a little breathing room. The NIT likes to play its games locally to generate interest. caus ing more travel for each lower seed but less travel for the higher Hoops 101: Curriculum for new NCAA tourney seeds. If necessary, though, the NIT could rethink its approach by just havin g four regio nal venues. with enhanced nati onal television interest adding the sizzle. Cons ider also : Winning the current NIT already requires five games. and winning the NCAA req uires six games. Even if the NIT qualifiers play two or three more contests, few schools, if an y, would be fatigued an y more than several schools are now. Call it the NIT Play-In Tournament. With the NIT now contro lled by the NCAA anyway, the stage is dul y set to enhance the NCAA reac h, ano int great meaning and relevance to the NIT,an d simulta neously expand the greatest sports commod ity that money and ingenuity can buy: hope. There is a grow ing likelihood that the NCAA will expand as soon as 2011. Unless it wan ts to conduct a diminished NIT for team s with losing records, the NIT may disappear altogether as a new stalk of NCAA games takes shape. The conclusion rema ins: A play-in tournament is a bette r approach than traditional bott om-up expansion with up to 32 more meaningless games. Suddenly there will be more hope, more fairness, and dozens of additional games worth watching - all good for television , fans, ra tings and March revenue. And that adds up to • March Magic. Eldon L. Ham is an adjunct pro- ere is a sim ple suggestion for a new-look NCAA basketball tournament, adding mo re fun - and funds - to March Madness. 1. Invite 101teams. 2. Give the top 27teams a firstRoa NELSON round bye. 3. Sch edule 37 games for Wildcard Wednesday. 4. The 37 Wildcard Wednesday winners join the 27bye teams (64 in all) and play next on Weekend One of the tournament. 5. Weekend Two would be the Sweet Sixteen weekend, and Weekend Three is when The Final Four would take place. Inviting 101teams eliminates the possibility that a team or two on the bubble will not get a chanceto go to the Big Dance. Plus, ahem. there is some serious money to be made on Wildcard Wednesday for a lot of schools. I would also suggest that the 37 losin g teams from Wildcard Wednesday be invited to play in the NIT. The NIT committee could invite 11 other teams that were not part of the field of 101teams, wh ich would give the NIT a total of 48 teams. If I were a senior on one of those 37 Wildcard Wednesday losing teams, I would vote yes to play in the NIT, so I could get one last chance to play in a meaningful game for my school. It would be an honor, and it would be fun. (And, who knows? I might end up sinkin g my last collegiat e jump shot at Madison Square Garden . Not a bad memory to have, I'd say.) • Rob Nelson (rxnelson@mac .com) is the co-inven- H tor of Big League ChewBubble Gum. He was a left-handedphilosophy major - and pitcher- at Cornell University, Class of 1971. Rob's hopethot The Big Red reach this year s Sweet Sixteen was fulfilled. fessor of sports, law and society at Chicago-Kent Collegeof Law and has worked with or represented numerousagents and athletes. www.sportsbusinessjour nal.c om I Street & Smith's SportsBusiness.JOURNAL