All AQs must die

With March Madness upon us, I think it's time to have a serious discussion about something ruining the tournament...AQs. Automatic Qualifiers, or AQs, have been part of the tournament from the outset. In fact, "at-large" berths weren't even part of the tournament for many years.
It was determined, at some point, that too many deserving teams were being left out of the tournament and the field was expanded. With more openings than conferences, the tournament had to accept second and third place teams, even fourth, fifth, sixth place teams "at large" to fill in all the openings.
Still, there are a number of so-called bubble teams that are left out each year. The field expanded and expanded and yet the deserving teams continued to be left out. Perhaps one day, the field will expand to well over 300 teams, as to eliminate the bubble completely, and the name of the tournament will change to January Madness, with teams hoping to one day advance all the way to the Wonderful One Hundred Twenty Eight.
That's ridiculous, of course. But how else can there be room for deserving teams like UConn, Murray State, Old Dominion, or their bitter rivals New Dominion, without expanding the field?
It's simple...we kill the AQs, man.
I know, if you get rid of the AQ teams, you get rid of the major element creating the madness of the aforementioned March. People live to see teams like Hampton or Lehigh knock off a major power. I love it as much as anyone else.
You'll still have that without AQ teams. If NC Central or Illinois State or St. Francis-Brooklyn knocked off Kansas or Duke or Kentucky, nobody's going to call that anything besides an upset.
But the point the NCAA Selection Committee makes every year is they want the best 68 teams in the tournament. But is that really the case with the AQ teams? For instance, is Cal or Oregon State better than Hampton or Texas Southern? Is UConn or Illinois better than Belmont or North Dakota State? And isn't it still an upset if Murray State beats Virginia or St. Mary's beats Arizona?
Then why go on with the AQ non-sense?
OK, so Murray State and St. Mary's can't get big teams to play them. Then penalize those teams and make it publicly known. Arizona is a #8 seed...why? They were asked to play Murray State and declined. They declined a game at Montana. They declined a game at Northern Iowa. The selection committee rewards guts and courage, not ducking, dodging and avoiding.
Oh but don't get me started about the teams that duck and dodge then try to divert criticism with some stupid, elongated response about the gate...yes, because how will Michigan State scrape by without some extra ticket sales?
Have the NCAA create some preseason tournaments with the Murray States of the world against the Kentuckys of the world and make it know that the willingness to compete in and level of performance in these tournaments affects your placement in March greatly.
Create a structure where Manhattan has a better chance to prove they are good by competing against Kansas or Ohio State. Create an environment where teams are rewarded for winning games under adverse conditions, by being Duke and beating Bucknell on the road, by being Arizona and beating Charleston Southern on the road. The more you do this, the better your seed will be. That way, these AQ schools can prove they deserve a berth through their play, not simply from the fact they play in the Big West or Patriot League.
It's March Madness and the survivor wins the national championship. Why is anything about it automatic?