Field of 68, What are the options?

It was decided this spring that the field of 64 65 teams that made the NCAA tournament would be expanded to 68 teams going forward. The only decision that had not been made was how the additional 3 teams would fit into the bracket.

This week, the NCAA tournament committee is meeting to discuss that very issue and is weighing three options. While ESPN has some long, technical names and descriptions for them, let's break each down:

1) 4 Play-In Games for #16 seed: While the NCAA doesn't like that term, it's the most probably solution. In years past, the automatic qualifier was paired with another equally bad automatic qualifier. The winner played one of the four #1 seeds. The only difference now is that all four #1's would play a play-in winner and they would seed them as #16 and #17 with the winner playing the #1. Bracket Impact: Minimal. Currently, there has never been a #16 to beat a #1 seed. The Play-In games are often overlooked and usually not even picked on a bracket.

2) 4 Play-In Games for 10-13 seeds: The last at-large teams would be matched up against each other where each team would vie for the right to be the #10, #11, #12 and #13 seed. Two #10s would play with the winner playing the #7 seed. Two #12s would play and the winner would play the #5 seed. Bracket Impact: Maximum. This would mean that not only would you need to pick the #10 vs #10 seed, but then decide if your #10 can beat the #7. Upsets would be tougher to predict, teams would have a tougher chance of even making it to play the #5 seed - so predicting that 12 over 5 upset just became twice as hard.

3) #1 and #2 Hybrid: This combines #1 and #2. It takes the four #17 seeds and pits them against each other. The winner would play the #1 seed. The final four at-large teams would play in a series of play-in games for the right to go on. The #10 v #13, #11 vs #12. The winner moves into the higher seeded spot on the bracket (if #12 wins, the team moves to a #11 position). Bracket Impact: Moderate. As this solution is a combination of both, it will be overlooked when pitting the #16s vs #1s and have maximum impact when comparing the #10s to #7s.

You'll find out what is picked come the middle of July but which method do you like the most?