Did you enjoy the first two weeks of the NCAA basketball tournament? I know I have.

This year’s Big Dance has had it all: buzzer-beaters, upsets and all the trappings of high drama.

Now imagine this tournament watered down. Imagine thrilling games replaced with snoozers. Imagine February becoming just one more month of college basketball rather than do-or-die time for all 347 Division-1 teams. That nightmare might happen if the NCAA has its way. The culprit? Profit.

BRAZEAL

Obviously, American sports playoffs are — and must be — profitable. That’s why all postseason games — college and pro — have expanded since inception. Sometimes this has been good — all American sports leagues have grown in both size and popularity.

But many more times this has been bad. The prestige of the postseason is sacrificed for television money. Look no further than our own Georgia football team.

In the past, bowl games were a reward for a stellar season in college football. Instead, we looked at our game in Shreveport as emblematic of a season of missed expectations.

The NCAA Tournament as of right now is remarkably pure. Sixty-five teams — only conference champions and the top at-large teams — square off in a single-elimination series until the two remaining match up for the title.

This system ensures an incredible level of competition and passion. Just making the tournament is an achievement in itself. Once there, the selective entry criteria ensure that many of the games are close. Any team — whether a perennial powerhouse like Duke or a little giant like Butler — can go on a run into the Final Four.

Expanding the tournament to 96 or 128 teams while retaining the single-elimination format, as has been discussed, from the perspective of competition thus makes no sense — except from a financial perspective.

Think about it — a 96-team tournament means 31 more games than the current 64. Thirty-one more games to be hosted in cities across the United States — I know people would go.

CBS has a contract with the NCAA to broadcast the Big Dance for 11 years. But the NCAA can opt out of that contract after this season.

Do you think the network, worried about losing a cash cow to a rival, won’t be receptive to any sort of NCAA plan?

Essentially, the NCAA faces a choice between purity and profit — to keep the tournament full of drama and passionate play, or to succumb, as always, to the lure of TV money and exposure. As basketball fans, let’s hope they make the right choice.

— Michael Brazeal is a senior from Marietta majoring in newspapers and real estate