Probably the most convincing argument towards increasing the NCAA males’s and ladies’s basketball tournaments from 68 groups is fairly easy.
Virtually nobody is asking for it.
There is no such thing as a groundswell from followers. There aren’t any huge rankings for the present First 4 (i.e., play-in) video games that counsel client demand. There have been no groups legitimately cheated out of a bid — that they had 30 regular-season video games to make their case. There is no such thing as a apparent aggressive cause for it.
Exterior of some coaches and athletic administrators, most of whom stand to earn wholesome bonus cash in having their groups attain March Insanity, there is not anybody talking out in favor of this.
And but, as ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported this week, potential enlargement to 76 colleges stays on the desk with a “resolution … to come back within the subsequent few weeks.” To echo so many who treasure school basketball typically, and the match particularly … please do not.
If something, 68 is 4 too many, requiring clunky play-in video games on Tuesday and Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio, earlier than the principle occasion begins Thursday.
Look, harmless folks will not die if there may be extra basketball every March. So, sure, there are extra urgent points on this planet. Nonetheless, why mess with sporting perfection? Simply to placate just a few extra middling groups and choose up just a few extra bucks from tv?
Pigs get fats, hogs get slaughtered.
For many years, the NCAA has possessed one thing particular — and almost inconceivable to achieve. It owns two full days on the sports activities calendar — the primary Thursday and Friday of the NCAA match.
These are pseudo nationwide holidays, full with folks skipping work and college whereas tuning in on the workplace or throughout well-timed lunches. It produces a groundswell of exercise and pleasure that pulls in informal followers who eagerly fill brackets with groups, together with many they’ve by no means watched.
That engagement is what makes March mad and has turned this uniquely American occasion into an iconic slice of Americana that has survived at the same time as basic curiosity within the sport has waned.
It needs to be protected in any respect prices.
The choice to develop from the right 64 to 65 groups in 2001 after which 68 in 2011 had been the unique sins right here. It started as a response to the Western Athletic Convention splitting in two, creating the Mountain West, and meant beginning the match earlier than Thursday. You could possibly examine it to opening items on Christmas Eve, however not almost as pleasurable.
Luckily for the NCAA, America has principally ignored the doubleheader video games on Tuesday and Wednesday (two of them that includes 16 seeds enjoying one another). Thursday has maintained its magic.
But by increasing by eight extra groups, Tuesday and Wednesday would now characteristic six video games every, doubtless stretching throughout the day. The potential impression on fan curiosity or confusion over a watered-down week is perilous.
This spell might be damaged. The components can collapse.
For what goal? There is not a superb one.
Division I school basketball has grown via the years, with 355 groups eligible for the match final yr. At simply 19.1%, that makes it difficult to get a bid.
But, the numbers deceive. Development has come nearly completely as a result of small, one-bid leagues have added members from Division II and III. Whereas the champions of these leagues get an automated bid, it has zero impact on whether or not a high quality group able to a run earns one of many 37 at-large bids.
In 2025, the so-called Energy 5 leagues (ACC, Massive East, Massive Ten, Massive 12 and SEC) secured 33 of these 37 at-large choices. The Mountain West (3) and West Coast (1) earned the others. No good group is being squeezed right here. The Northeast Convention may develop to 30 groups and nonetheless be a one-bid operation.
As for an opportunity to “play into” the match, it is already out there.
Each convention has a match of its personal, with the winner receiving an automated bid to the Massive Dance. Just about each convention permits all of its groups to take part. Meaning a group such because the Citadel — which went 5-25 on the season and 0-18 within the Southern Convention final yr — had an opportunity to win 4 league match video games and get in (after which even win six or seven extra and be topped nationwide champs).
Should you contemplate the convention tournaments a play-in spherical of its personal — which it’s — the NCAA match is already over 300 groups sturdy. Virtually everybody already has a second probability.
To supply eight extra groups a 3rd probability defies logic when the match’s rhythm is so ingrained within the American sports activities consciousness.
That is about cash, though not a lot cash when it comes to extra tv income as most would anticipate. First 4 video games typically common solely 2 million to three million viewers — with no different match competitors — and are relegated to TruTV. It is not like followers are begging for extra. Crowding the window with a number of video games is not more likely to create a windfall.
No, that is about efficiency bonuses for eight extra coaches and eight extra athletic administrators.
In case you are a kind of folks, then perhaps this makes some short-term sense. Should you step again although, there may be little to nothing to be gained and a lot to be misplaced.
Sixty-eight is greater than sufficient.
