Gary Parrish

the below-average Big 12 team against the below-average SEC team for the right to play into the main bracket on Thursday or Friday.

I could actually get involved with that, but as currently constructed, that's just not what we're going to do.

So...

You've got it all right.

This is where it's headed.

It's funny because my buddies over at the Field of 68, when they named the podcast network that, I said, what are you doing?

Because you're going to get stuck with a bad number just like the Pac-12 or the Big 12 or whatever because it's going to go from Field of 68 to Field of 76 to Field of something else eventually.

But to your initial point, we'll get there in increments, and that makes it a little easier to digest.

It would possibly be, but the problem becomes, and I say this as somebody who works for a television network, at some point you get television networks involved, and here's the truth.

They don't want the little guys playing like that.

They would much rather have the big brand from the Big Ten, whatever their record is,

playing on Thursday, Friday than St.

Peter's or High Point.

And so this thing that might sound attractive to you and I as basketball fans,

Television networks are trying to get eyeballs on television screens.

And the way to do that is to have as many big brands as you can have playing in what we consider the main part of the bracket.

So there's a lot of people involved in these conversations, trying to serve a lot of different masters, if you will.

And it's why every solution is met with a roadblock somewhere.

You start the conversation with Greg Sankey and you say, okay, so here's the deal.

Because first off, by definition, the quote-unquote regular season conference champion of these one-bid leagues is usually the best team and usually, by definition, best equipped to upset somebody once you get to the bracket.