Like it is

Pay little attention to Saturday's Sweet 16

Duke's Grayson Allen (3) looks to shoot while North Carolina's Nate Britt, rear, and Kennedy Meeks (3) defend as Duke's Marques Bolden watches at right during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Durham, N.C., Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Stop the presses.

Well, not today, and yours truly has not actually heard that said in a newsroom in a serious manner.

And the presses won't have to be held Saturday for the breaking news at 11:30 a.m. on CBS, when the NCAA Tournament selection committee reveals its Sweet 16. That's just the top 16 seeds if the tournament began Saturday, and it is subject to change many times in the next 30 days.

The official field of 68 will be announced March 12.

Saturday's announcement is a new idea, and it is being done for two reasons: So CBS can sell advertising and pick up some money, and to pump up a little interest in the NCAA Tournament, which is in dire need of changes.

The NCAA Tournament needs to change its format and enlarge the field.

Currently, and it has been done this way a long time, 32 conference tournament champions will get automatic bids.

There will be upsets in the conference tournaments, and if you are the conference champion of one of the 22 one-bid leagues, you're likely going to the NIT and not the Big Dance.

The suggestion here is to shorten the regular season by a week and expand the field to 96. Give all 32 regular-season conference champions the automatic bid and every conference tournament winner a bid, and there still will be plenty of spots left for the ACC to get its seven or eight bids.

That would put the emphasis back on the regular season and not one long weekend. It would give CBS and Turner Television (TBS, TNT and truTV) two great weekends with chances for more Cinderellas to thrill the nation. It would also line the TV magnates' deep pockets with even more gold.

It is just a suggestion that would create more interest in a great event that needs some tweaking.

Now, when the big announcement is made Saturday about who is in the temporary Sweet 16, do not be shocked that the much-maligned SEC will have two teams named -- and Kentucky won't be the first one unless the announcement goes in reverse order.

Florida has moved ahead of the Wildcats in three of the four major computer rankings. Since losing at South Carolina and to (gasp) Vanderbilt at home, the Gators have won five straight by an average of 28 points. That includes a convincing 88-66 win over Kentucky.

The rematch Feb. 25 in Lexington could be the game of the week.

Everyone in the media banters on and on about teams' RPI (Ratings Percentage Index), but Ken Pomeroy (KenPom.com), Jeff Sagarin (USA Today) and BPI (Basketball Power Index created for ESPN) may get even more consideration from the selection committee, or so it has seemed since 2015 when Colorado State was left out with an RPI of 29. The Rams were ranked 68 by Pomeroy and 57 by Sagarin.

In 2003, Missouri State was left out of the field with an RPI of 21.

So expanding the field and giving regular-season conference champions the automatic bid also would take out a little of the argument about computer-generated rankings.

The NCAA Tournament has become the judge and jury for the success of a season, but even the Arkansas Razorbacks -- who were rated Thursday between 46th and 59th in the four major rankings -- still determine whether they make the field. A win at Florida would be huge, and again, Vanderbilt did it.

Anyway, Saturday morning while the Gators are hosting Texas A&M, CBS will reveal the Sweet 16, but it could change by sunset.

Sports on 02/10/2017