At least the NCAA tried to get creative before shutting down the entire 2020 NCAA Tournament.

According to multiple reports, before canceling the 68-team tournament, the NCAA considered slimming down the field to just 16-teams and holding the event in Atlanta.

Oh, what could have been.

Matt Norlander of CBS Sports outlines what he has been told regarding the idea.

“(NCAA vice president of men’s basketball) Dan Gavitt also detailed this scenario: the NCAA considered, briefly, holding an NCAA Tournament with 16 teams to be held next Thursday-Monday in Atlanta at State Farm Arena. All 16 would be at-larges and if other teams did not want in, they would go down the seed line.”

This potential scenario is also being reported by the AP. Here’s what the AP revealed on Friday:

“NCAA tells AP it planned to salvage March Madness with a 16-team tournament before canceling the entire event.”

It would have been fascinating to see how the selection process played out considering the tournament would not have had many automatic bids to select from leading up to a potential 16-team tournament. We’ll obviously never know how it would have played out but you can bet there would have been some heated debates regarding which teams deserved to make the cut.