The CIAC has spoken and, yes, Connecticut will have eight high school football state champions crowned in 2014.

By my count, Connecticut has eight high school football conferences. Hmmm.

However, I won't criticize the CIAC because the new format was established with good intentions -- player safety -- and I find it difficult to believe an eight-division system will stick around in Connecticut any longer than Bobby V stuck around in Boston.

Also, it's basketball season. If we're going to address playoffs, it's got to be hoops.

The CIAC fidgeted with its postseason in the middle of the decade, switching from the LL through S format to a Division I through IV setup that grouped teams based on opponents' enrollment. For example, Trinity Catholic, which typically bounces from Class M to Class S, beat a slew of LL and L teams in 2004-05, thus earning a spot in the Division I bracket.

That arrangement lasted three years. It was scrapped in 2006-07, replaced by the traditional format you see today. Connecticut currently crowns four state hoops champions.

I say we crown one.

That's right: A 64-team, March Madness tournament for boys and girls basketball. Regional finals in Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford and Danbury. Final Four at Mohegan Sun. Automatic bids for each conference tournament winner. A selection committee assembled by the CIAC. Selection Show on CPTV. Games, too. My Dick Vitale impression on the airwaves.

"Ohhhhh, let's do this, Connecticut!!!!!" All right.

Now a deep breath.

This was a topic I broached four years ago when I began writing for Hearst Connecticut Media. It's an idea that's been spinning in my strange little head since I was turning the ball over as a point guard at New Milford High in the mid-2000s. A decade later, I'm still serious about gauging outside interest.

The main reason: It would be a blast for anyone passionate about high school hoops in our state. There's no better postseason than the NCAA tournament, and Connecticut is in the unique position to duplicate the world's coolest playoff format.

There are 345 teams in NCAA Division I men's basketball and 343 on the women's side. Just over 18 percent qualify for the Big Dance.

In Connecticut high school hoops, there are 177 boys basketball programs and 178 girls teams. The 2014 ladies' brackets were completed Tuesday, and 115 of the 178 teams qualified.

That's 64 percent. That's like a fifth-grade teacher handing out stickers to all kids who spell their names correctly. You don't get stickers for spelling your own name. You get stickers for cleaning the chalkboard and dusting the desks and doing all the crap your teacher doesn't want to do so he or she can book it out of those doors at 3:15 and not a minute later.

Without question, Connecticut has long rewarded undeserving basketball teams. Fifty-five schools with an 11-9 record or worse qualified for the 2013 boys state playoffs. Only 15 of those teams made it past the first round. Only four made the quarterfinals.

A pair -- Weston in Class M and Weaver in Class S -- made the state finals. They represent the case against high school March Madness.

If the fat was trimmed from the state playoffs, there's no way a 10-10 SWC team would have qualified, which means there's no way Weston's miraculous run to the Class M championship game would have occurred.

My rebuttal? Of the 128 boys basketball semifinalists since 2007, only five had an 11-9 record or worse. Weston is an outlier.

You can also argue that the system is inherently unfair to small schools, the Shepaug Valleys and Thomastons of our state. I don't really have a rebuttal for that one.

Take the 2013 Gilbert team. The Yellow Jackets went 14-6 in the Berkshire League, lost in the conference semifinals, and got battered in their only non-conference game by University (Hartford), a tech league school that went 15-8.

That might not be good enough for March Madness inclusion. They could lose a spot to, say, an 11-9 team from a bigger conference (Weaver was 8-12 when it defeated Gilbert 94-81 in the first round).

This is where things get a little hairy. The numbers from the 2013 boys bracket suggest that roughly half the field will be comprised of teams with 14-6 records or better. The remainder will be filled out by those 13-7s and 12-8s and 11-9s and even 10-10s. There will need to be decisions: A 10-10 FCIAC school or a 14-6 or 13-7 small-league school? It's a tough call. It's not like the committee can watch every game on ESPN2 to get a decent "eye test." So its members must be people who have a pulse on multiple leagues.

March Madness' harshest detractors will point to one final flaw: This system deprives 95 percent of schools of realistic state championship chances. This is true, too. Valley Regional and Granby Memorial, the Class M and S boys' winners a year ago, aren't bringing home any banners here. Neither is Coginchaug on the girls' side.

But that's part of the deal.

Look at it this way: Ten years from now, I bet you'll remember Florida Gulf Coast's Sweet 16 run. I bet you won't remember that Louisville won the national championship.

Implementing a 64-team tournament simply reshapes the goals for each school. It exponentially heightens the value of the conference playoffs, particularly in smaller leagues. It makes inclusion in the state playoffs an actual achievement.

It makes a whole lot of sense, doesn't it? I'm no fool, though. I know this thing is a giant long shot. I know it's a radical suggestion.

I also know that I'll be here perfecting my Dickie V impression just in case.

Check back next week for my high school football idea. Two words: Bowl season.; @KevinRDuffy