Mike Rooney and Burkie discuss recent NCAA tournament expansions in college basketball and the College Football Playoff, weighing how added teams might affect entertainment value, regular-season stakes, and bowl relevance.

They then shift to college baseball, proposing an expanded field (e.g., 68 teams) with play-in games: the weakest recent auto-bid leagues playing at the top two national seeds and the “first four out” playing into regionals hosted by the top two-seeds that missed hosting, using five-year RPI and tournament results to determine leagues. They debate potential benefits like compelling Thursday-night TV and more on-campus postseason games versus concerns about empty stadiums, daytime start times, possible season-calendar shifts, and preserving a regional format they believe is thriving.

00:00 Welcome Back

00:06 Thank You AstroTurf!

00:34 Playoff Expansion Debate

01:34 Hoops First Four Thoughts

02:28 Quick Aside: Notre Dame-BYU Chaos

04:03 Does The Playoff Expansion Ruin CFB?

05:05 Burkie on Basketball's Field of 68

06:36 Burkie on Football's "Bowl Games"

09:57 Transition to Baseball Format

10:34 Baseball First Four Proposal

12:48 Fairness and Seeding Logic

15:43 Auto Bid Leagues and TV

17:21 How The 32 Hosts Would Work

20:23 Keep Regionals...or Expand?

22:08 Wrap Up and Takeaways

For athletes and sports programs of all levels, AstroTurf has managed the entirety of the synthetic turf manufacturing process for decades. By focusing on quality, safety, and performance, AstroTurf continues to provide customized surfacing solutions for baseball and softball programs across the professional and collegiate ranks, including being the Official Synthetic Turf of MLB®. For more information, please visit https://astroturf.com/

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