And then there were five... again?

According to reports, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is rethinking their Best Picture category for the second time in six years.

Back in 2009, the organization decided to expand the top category from five films to 10. But in 2011, in order to create greater suspense, the Academy decided that it could select anywhere between five and 10 Best Pictures. Under this format, the Best Picture category featured nine films on three occasions and eight in the most recent iteration.

Now it seems that the organization wants to have yet another mulligan on the whole situation and revert to having just five nominees.

The original intention to expand the category was to allow more popular fare to compete. In 2008, "The Dark Knight" was left out of the top five, to the displeasure of many. To fix this and appeal to wider audiences, the category was expanded to 10. But this has apparently not fulfilled the original intention.

Ratings are not up and the reality is that the films being nominated are not necessarily populist ones. Of the nominees in the latest round of Oscars, only one film topped $300 million and only one other film grossed over $60 million during its run. Those are hardly the kinds of numbers one would associate with more popular films. "The Imitation Game," which has brought in $87 million thus far in theaters and is the second highest grossing film of the past Best Picture nominees, ranks 36th on the list for highest grossing films of 2014.

Some might claim that since more popular films are not being showcased, then the organization would be better suited with going back to a five-film format, thus assuring that all five films are of utmost quality.

There will always be someone complaining about one of the five finalists, but that point aside, this move is not one to support for a number of other reasons.

The names of those reasons include "Whiplash," "Selma," "Her," "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Amour," "Winter's Bone," "Toy Story 3," "The Kids Are All Right" and "A Serious Man." Regardless of what you think about these films, none of them would have had a chance to compete in the Best Picture category without the expanded category. "Toy Story 3" withstanding, the rest of these films are all independent films that would be shunned in a five-picture race, simply because they might not have the marketing power behind them. In the case of indie hits "Whiplash" and "Beasts of the Southern Wild," these films might have gone completely under the radar if not for their Best Picture nominations. And let us not even talk about "Selma," which would have been shunned based on its performance in other categories. If you think there was a lot of (deserved) scrutiny over the film's lack of nominations, imagine if it did not get the Best Picture nomination as a "consolation prize?"

Jumping off of the "Selma" nomination, having more than five nominees allows for opportunities to showcase diversity. The Academy has not completely taken advantage of this opportunity (maybe that is one way to get audiences watching the show), but the opportunity remains with 10 nominees. Cutting it down to five again all but assures that entire interest groups are completely ignored. If the Oscars wants to redefine its show, then this would be an opportunity to do so. The nomination of "Amour" a few years ago hinted at the possibility of seeing more foreign language representatives in the category. It was an opportunity to build off, but one the Academy failed to do.

On a more superficial level, changing the category for the third time in seven years would simply be a sign of instability and indecisiveness. No one ultimately cares how many films are nominated and having less is not necessarily more if the nine of 10 nominees are of high caliber. If anything, having 10 diverse and high-quality films in the category would actually boost the Academy and give it more chances to bring in newer audiences. This is what needs to change. Not the number. If the Oscars want to be seen as serious awards ceremony, then they need to worry about more serious issues in their process and it shouldn't always center on numbers.