Sixty-five is plenty (actually, one too many)

So Florida State is leading the way in a fight to increase the NCCA men's basketball tournament field. Some people want as many as 80 teams. Others think 68 would be a good number, with four play-in games. I once heard the great John Wooden say every Division I team should get in the tournament.

Isn't that pretty much the case now? With conference tournaments, everyone except Ivy League teams, have a shot to make it to the Big Dance by winning their postseason.

Florida State had no real argument for being left out this past season. If the Seminoles would have beaten Wake Forest - the last-place team in the conference, mind you - they may have had a case. But by losing the opener, Leonard Hamilton and Dave Hart need to just keep their mouths shut.

Every team with a realistic chance of winning the tournament gets in the tournament. The bubble teams that end up getting left out don't have a real shot beyond maybe winning a game or two.

I have never embraced having 65 teams. I can live with 64 teams, although 48 made the conference regular-season and tournaments a lot more exciting.

It's interesting. I've been researching the 1976 ACC tournament champion, Virginia. Although the Cavaliers were 18-12 heading into the tournament, an at-large bid was out of the question. The NCAA tournament was just two years removed from inviting only the tourney champ. In 1976 two teams at most from a conference made it. Virginia had to win it all or it was the NIT or, more likely, a trip home.

Wally Walker, Virginia's star senior on that year's team, likes the current system, but realizes that the excitement level of that 1976 tournament can't be equaled now. I recently talked to him for a book, "Mad About U," I am co-authoring with Chris Graham on UVa.'s University Hall and Cavalier basketball.

“The whole system has changed. It’s changed for the better,” Walker said. “George Mason getting to the Final Four (in 2006) creates great interest and great opportunity for all programs throughout the country. So I’m not lamenting the fact that it’s a different system, but the pressure on those tournament games was much greater then than it is now for that very reason. “

So see, FSU. Losing in the first round of the ACC tourney should be all the discussion needed to keep you out of the NCAA tourney. The solution in future years - win more games.

- Patrick Hite