Bucky McMillan Isn't A Fan Of NCAA Tournament Expansion

The NCAA has officially announced the expansion of March Madness beginning with the 2027 tournament. The playoff picture will shift from 68 to 76 teams for both the women's and men's matchups.

Already one of the largest tournaments in the country, fans, coaches, and players are all left curious as to why it needed to be expanded in the first place.

Specifically, Bucky McMillan, the head coach of the Texas A&M Aggies, had little but enough to say about the change in formatting.

"I personally liked it the old way."

Texas A&M Aggies coach Bucky McMillan during a first-round game of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Paycom Center. | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

With his short and sweet message, Bucky stated that he wasn't particularly fond of the recent addition of more teams in the playoffs, saying, "I thought getting into the NCAA tournament was such a badge of honor; it probably still will be that way, but I don't love change too much."

The key differences in the format and structure of the new playoff pictures are as follows;

Structure	The 68-Team Era	The 76-Team Era
Total Field Size	68 teams	76 teams
Bids Added	Baseline	+8 at-large bids per tournament
Early Stage	"First Four" (4 games, 8 teams)	"Opening Round" (12 games, 24 teams)
Main Bracket Schedule	Stays at 64 teams	Stays at 64 teams

In an attempt to even the playing field for the conference-title winners, the NCAA made a decision: alter the beloved main bracket, or the gritty first four survival games. Obviously, they decided that the best decision was to give the new teams a shot in the early stage, and then move on with the 64-team bracket as follows.

What does this mean for the SEC conference? In recent years, the commissioners for the power four conferences have been desperately pushing for this expansion, and the reason for the lobbying is simple: why should a small school playing well against small schools get a bid over big schools playing decently against big schools?

At the end of the day, it is clear that much of this change had to do with inner politics. For Texas A&M, though, which consistently makes the tournament year after year, its head coach had a very casual take on the matter.

"I don't think it hurts the SEC, it only helps the SEC," said McMillan, "We probably would've had two more teams in the tournament last year if the bracket was expanded last year."

Though the NCAA did what they thought was best for not only the tournament, but the television ratings, like anything else, there were critics. Namely, with more games to be played, the risk of injury is higher for several programs; also, the tournament entry standard has been lowered, making the entire event a bit less prestigious.

In time, the entire college basketball community will wrap its head around the brand new structure, but until then, people will continue to debate amongst each other until the first tip-off in the 12-game opening round.

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