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The four play-in games is not the first round of the NCAA Tournament

I've been slightly perplexed since the start of the NCAA Tournament last week. Following the four play-in games last Tuesday and Wednesday, we were down to 64 teams, as has been the case for quite some time. As the games were being played on Thursday and Friday, many college basketball analysts and commentators referred to the games as 2nd round action, and Saturday and Sundays games as 3rd round action. I'm sorry, but until the brackets are expanded further and every team has to play another round of games, I'm not going to refer to these four play-in games as the first round. What, does that mean 60 teams have byes that round? That's quite the playoff system right there!

I imagine the genius behind the format was thinking, "Okay, you know how in pro football, each conference has six teams in the playoffs, with the two best teams having byes in the first round? Let's times that by fifteen, where we have eight teams play in the first round and give sixty teams byes! It's brilliant, I tell you! Simply brilliant!"

Also, when filling in brackets, have you heard of anyone picking those four play-in games? If so, I'm not aware of this (outside of Vegas, of course). This would require that people fill in and hand over their picks by Tuesday evening, just two days after the teams have been announced. It can be difficult enough filling in brackets and turning them in within four days, let alone in half that time.

Let's call these games for what they are - play-in games. When only 8 of 68 teams (11.8%) play these games, that does not make them a round of games. When almost 90% of the teams don't play these games, I think it's pretty safe to say it's not a round. If I take that percentage and apply it to either professional basketball or hockey (16 total playoff teams in each sport), that would equate to under two teams (1.89) playing in the first "round" of the playoffs. Unless there's something I haven't been informed about, that's not possible and would not equate to being a round in the playoffs, just as the four play-in games to precede the NCAA Tournament doesn't equate them to being a round either.

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