The First Four is not enough?
That's the opinion of the Atlantic Coast Conference, which announced Thursday it would propose legislation increasing the NCAA tournament field to 72 teams.
The current NCAA field of 68 starts with two games in Dayton on both Tuesday and Wednesday after Selection Sunday. The winners then advance to the first-round games starting on Thursday.
The First Four features two contests between the last four at-large teams and two between the four lowest ranked conference champions.
The idea pushed by the ACC would be create a second site which would add four more at-large teams to the field and double the amount of conference champions included in the early games.
"The idea of having two First Fours, if you will, maybe geographic," ACC commissioner John Swofford said in a report by the News & Observer. "That's such a quick turnaround. You could have one maybe in Dayton and one in the western part of the states. But we will be proposing that."
The move could likely be seen as a greater power grab for the larger conferences, which typically take up a vast majority of the at-large berths. In this year's tournament there were 21 teams from power leagues selected with double digit losses. Three of the four at-large teams in the First Four - UCLA, Arizona State and Syracuse - were from big leagues.
First Four winners have proven their worth since the tournament expanded from 65 teams to 68 teams in 2011. In each of the eight seasons, one of the at-large winners has then won its next game in the first round. Virginia Commonwealth advanced to the Final Four in 2011 after starting in the First Four.
