Due to my chronic wonkiness, I couldn't help myself once again. I created an 80 team field, based on five rating services rather than a selection committee. The ratings I used were the Massey Composite, KenPom, Sagarin, ESPN BPI and NCAA RPI.

I took the ratings for each school, threw out the highest and lowest ranks for each school, and averaged the remaining three. My 80 team field includes all 32 conference champions plus the 48 highest ranked non champions at large. Then I seeded them based strictly by rank, with the top 48 schools given a first round bye. The other 32 would play the first round on Tuesday and Wednesday, just like the current play-in games. However, they would be played at the 8 sub-regional sites so the 16 winners who advance don't have to travel somewhere else.

I did put a limit of 40 teams from the six power conferences (P5 + Big East), leaving 40 spots for the remaining 26 conferences.

Using this method, 3 schools who received bids this year would not have made my 80 team field. They were (seeds in parentheses) Alabama (9), Providence (10), and Syracuse (11).

15 schools are in my 80 team field who did not get one of the 68 bids this year. Their seeds based on average ranking are shown before the school name.

8....Louisville (ACC)
8....St Mary's (WCC)
9....Notre Dame (ACC)
9....Baylor (B12)
10...USC (PAC)
10...Penn State (B1G)
12...Maryland (B1G)
13...Middle Tennessee (CUSA)
13...Boise State (MWC)
14...Western Kentucky (CUSA)
15...Louisiana (SBC)
15...Vermont (AEAS)
15...BYU (WCC)
15...Old Dominion (CUSA)
16...South Dakota (SUM)

Six of these are from power conferences, and nine from mid-majors, meaning the mid majors got 75% of the additional 12 spots.