THE SEASON IS ALREADY TOO LONG. A further expansion of the NCAA basketball tournament doesn't make sense. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel sports columnist Dave Heller expands. The conference tournaments, and the additional first round games, might not be as effective at generating revenue. The columnist quotes from an ESPN pundit who suggests the current format is not the cash cow some people think it is. It's not obvious to me that the proposed 96 team field, in which 64 teams effectively are in play-in games, will generate sufficent additional interest to sell the advertising that will make the difference to CBS. And -- any parallels between proliferating tournament games and proliferating scholarly journals is deliberate -- it doesn't have to follow that coaches will be under less pressure to produce with a larger field. Yes, more teams will be selected for the tournament. But does "made the seventh game" say anything about a coach that "finished in the middle of the conference" doesn't? And with the seeding system working as effectively as it often does, does anybody expect a 24-seed that gets through the play-in to suprise the one?