Horned Screamer wrote:increasing the field has mostly served the interests of bad teams who still want to get the "nationals experience" by continuing to allow the same kinds of wildcard teams who used to go 2-8 or whatever a continued chance to go 2-8 by giving them more than enough room to register, with or without an actual bid.
This is not really how wildcard bids to HSNCT operate in practice.
Stats from the 2012 HSNCT:
208 teams qualified outright, and compiled a record of 1069-1011 (0.514 winning percentage).
19 wildcard teams compiled a record of 98-92 (0.516 winning percentage). The wildcard teams, on average, were just a bit better than the teams that qualified at tournaments.
13 standby teams compiled a record of 33-97 (0.254 winning percentage), which is about what one would expect.