The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT April 3, 2009

Increasing the NCAA men's basketball tournament from 65 to 96 teams may be a good idea, but if they are looking to retool a postseason event, they have the wrong sport.

With more than 32 bowl games played in college football after the regular season ends, committee members should find a way to get the best 16 teams in Division I football on the field to determine a true national champion, much like the Football Championship Subdivision does.

IN PAST years, there has been a debate to whether the best teams in the nation got into the title game, with Alabama beating Texas in the Rose Bowl in the BCS national title game in January.

Alabama showed why it was the best team on that particular night, but had the Crimson Tide faced another team, such as Ohio State or Oregon at a neutral site, who knows what happens?

No, I do not think that Boise State could have beaten either of those teams in the title game, but the Broncos could have given all but Florida a run for its money in a 60-minute game. Along those same lines, TCU (the team that Boise State defeated in the Fiesta Bowl), could have continued on a run and made a Cinderella story of its own.

Every other NCAA championship features some form of a tournament, but with football, they leave it up to a computer to determine the top two teams in the nation to face off in the championship game.

SHOULD THEY adopt the expansion in basketball, it's a better chance that you'll see teams like North Carolina, South Carolina and others from big-time conferences fill in the 96 spots, instead of Virginia Commonwealth (which won the College Bracket Insider tournament) and Dayton, which may be just as good, but don't get the recognition because of their respective conferences.

Butler, a mid-major team that has been flirting with success for the last five years, will be joined by Duke, West Virginia and Michigan State in the Final Four starting today at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, just a mere six miles from the Butler campus.

With 96 teams likely getting an invite next season, be prepared to be watching Cinderella dance a lot more in the coming years.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached at 664-0239 or via e-mail at jelliott@cdapress.com.