Could NCAA Tournament expand to 76 teams next season?
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The NCAA Tournament is arguably the greatest sporting event in the world.
From Selection Sunday to the Final Four, March Madness spans three action-packed weeks of buzzer-beaters, upsets, heartbreak and joy. It's basketball heaven. And it's dangerous to mess with such a good product.
But change is on the horizon for the 68-team field. Last year, the NCAA presented a plan to Division I conference commissioners that would expand the men's and women's tournaments by either four or eight teams. The 64-team bracket would remain intact, but more play-in games would be added, expanding the field to 72 or 76 teams.
The tournament last expanded in 2011 when the NCAA added the First Four and went from 64 to 68 teams. Expansion clearly favors power conferences, who have dozens of teams on the bubble this season. In a 76-team field, the Big 12 would likely put two more teams into the tournament this season.
In a press conference at the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, conference commissioner Brett Yormark said he is in favor of expanding the field to 76. And a decision could be coming soon.
"I'm in favor of expansion to 76. I think that's the right number," Yormark said on Tuesday. "I think the economics candidly have to work. CBS and TNT have a marquee [television] asset with the tournament. I know they know that. But in order for us to expand, they need to come to the table and provide the right economics."
"I think there will be some decisions over the next 90 days, 60 days. No one wants to be diluted, and we have a great asset here. We'll see how it plays out."
NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt recently said a vote on tournament expansion could happen in the spring. And he believes men's college basketball is as deep as ever and needs to change with the times.
“There’s no sport that is deeper overall and has more parity than men’s college basketball,” Gavitt said in a recent CBS Sports interview. “There’s great basketball played at every level in men’s basketball right now. So I think it’s important to keep the tournament contemporary and relevant, based on what is going on in college athletics.”
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-029877d49238355bd3388a94f90e3c72.jpg "Ben Sherman")
Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his 27-year journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. A basketball junkie, March Madness is his favorite time of the year.