If the NCAA men's tournament expanded to 90 teams, here's what the Power 6 conference allocations could look like. (Michael Wagstaffe / Yahoo Sports)
BY JEFF EISENBERG
Two or three times in the last decade, the NCAA men's basketball committee has been asked to consider increasing the current 68-team tournament field. Each time, the committee has quickly and emphatically shot down that idea without much discussion.
Now comes an expansion proposal that will demand a more thorough discussion, this one with the backing of the powerful Greg Sankey and an influential group of college athletics leaders. The NCAA's transformation committee, which has been tasked with modernizing college sports and improving the student-athlete experience, recommended in January to broaden access to Division I championships by allowing more teams to participate in those events.
This month, a little less than 19% of Division I's 363 men's basketball teams and 361 women's basketball teams will participate in the NCAA tournament. The transformation committee advised the NCAA to raise that to 25% in every team sport, which would mean 90-team men's and women's basketball tournaments.
Project what a 90-team NCAA tournament would look like this season and it’s easy to see the downside. The worst Villanova team in more than a decade would easily make that field. So would 16-win Florida and all 10 members of the Big 12 — even sub-.500 Oklahoma.
Whether that would render the regular season even more irrelevant is one factor for the men’s basketball committee to consider when it discusses potential NCAA tournament expansion later this year. The committee would also have to assess whether an extra round would mess up the pacing of the NCAA tournament and make it more difficult for Cinderellas to emerge.
And then there’s maybe the biggest component in all this: The cash.
In 2010, CBS and Turner Sports agreed to pay $10.8 billion to carry the men’s tournament for 14 years. CBS and Turner later signed an eight-year, $8.8 billion extension to continue to broadcast the tournament through 2032.
How much more money could the NCAA extract from its TV partners if it was able to offer more NCAA tournament games to air? Would that influx of TV and ticket revenue outweigh the travel expenses of sending more men’s and women’s teams to their sites? And, if so, would the short-term money be worth the risk of doing long-term damage to the primary money-maker propping up all of college athletics?
Serious questions would accompany any push for expansion. Would including every power-conference team with a pulse reduce the regular season to a seeding contest? Would adding a glut of borderline power-conference teams push more mid-majors into the play-in round and eliminate the giant-slaying Cinderellas that give the NCAA tournament its charm?
“The exclusivity is what makes it special,” said Wes Miller, whose 2017 UNC Greensboro team was the first team on the wrong side of the bubble. “... My first gut reaction has always been let’s be careful not to fix something that’s not broken. We have the greatest sporting event in the world, so I’m always super cautious suggesting changing something that is already elite.”
For a look at the extra 22 teams that would make this year’s tournament, go here. And, of course, let us know your thoughts.
