College Basketball: NCAA Tournament Expansion

     College sports have been full of change the last few years, from NIL, the transfer portal, and conference realignment. While the NCAA has decided to amend some of its archaic policies for the good of student-athletes, it is also looking to reshape the sport of college basketball and its premier event.

    The NCAA recently released potential plans to expand both the men's and women's basketball tournaments as early as the 2025-26 season. Currently, both tournaments sit at 68 teams, with the proposal aiming to add play-in games around the existing format. These new play-in games would include teams slotted as 10-12 seeds. The tournament could expand to either 72 or 76 teams under this proposal. The NCAA Basketball committee was scheduled to meet this week to discuss the state of the tournament with expansion being the most notable topic.

    There are different reasons to side against this expansion but I worry most about the effect on the quality of games by adding in 4 or 8 more teams in the current play-in format. To me, it seems most basketball fans would rather keep the number at 68 and if anything, wish it could shrink back down to 64. As evidenced by last year's First Four, particularly the Virginia vs. Colorado State contest, it showed that more basketball is not necessarily the best thing. We can all agree how excruciating of a watch that game was and I say that as a lifelong Virginia fan. I don't see much of an appetite from a fan perspective for more games between less talented teams, however it would be ignorant to not acknowledge the financial aspect of expansion and how it would positively affect TV networks. But despite the implementation of the First Four in 2011, the tournament still starts on Thursday to most casual fans so why bother adding more games of this stature between lesser quality teams?   

    Adding another 4 or 8 teams may only exacerbate the problem and bring more hard-to-watch games like UVA and CSU in future tournaments. It's one thing to have a hot mid-major team who gains an auto-bid and ends up playing poorly resulting in a quick exit; after all, the automatic qualifiers are a big part of what makes the tournament so exciting but adding additional power conference teams that limped through the season to make the tournament as the 68th or 72nd team is not likely to produce high quality games that engage fans on a yearly basis. The current format is a solid middle ground where each team has an opportunity to grab a bid while also valuing the importance of the regular season within the sport.

For the long-term health of college hoops, the NCAA should avoid fixing what isn't broken.



 








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