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Teel: Who would benefit from expanding NCAA basketball tournament?

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6 months ago

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Teel: Who would benefit from expanding NCAA basketball tournament?

College basketball’s Selection Sunday has two hallowed traditions: Forecasting the tournament’s outcome and complaining about the bracket crafted by the NCAA selection committee.

“My team deserved a higher seed!”

“We have to play THEM?!”

But the most common and loudest refrains echo from those not among the field’s at-large selections.

This timeless lament will endure until — God forbid — the NCAA includes every Division I team, 362 and counting, in the men’s tournament. And the carping certainly will continue if those managing the sport expand the event from 68 teams to 72 or 76.

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Percolating for years, the notion has gathered momentum as four power conferences — the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC — have mushroomed to a combined 68 schools. Commissioners want more of their teams competing and, presumably, cashing in on tournament riches.

Whether the NCAA’s television partners, CBS and Turner, are willing to pay more than the current $1.1 billion annual price tag remains to be seen, but as Yahoo Sports first reported, NCAA officials Wednesday unveiled 72- and 76-team models at a Florida gathering of Division I commissioners.







UConn center Donovan Clingan adds his team to the 2024 Final Four bracket after the Huskies defeated Illinois in the Elite 8 in Boston.




These are the most palatable and realistic expansions of a tournament that is darn-near perfect and captivates us for three blissful weeks each year. Adding 2-4 games on Tuesday and Wednesday of the tournament’s opening week, when the First Four doubleheaders are staged in Dayton, Ohio, would preserve the current calendar and not terribly compromise the bracket.

So the question becomes: Which programs and conferences might benefit most from expansion? Mid-majors such as the Atlantic 10 and Mountain West? The power brokers at the ACC, Big East, Big 12, SEC and Big Ten?

Near misses

Since 2012, the NCAA has revealed the four teams that were the last excluded from the field, giving us a dozen tournaments — the 2020 edition was canceled — to project some answers.

Of the 48 near-misses, only 29 hailed from power conferences, including the dearly departed Pac-12. I say “only” because those leagues accounted for a far larger share of at-large bids, 28 of 36, in this year’s field, and 31 of 36 the season prior.

Selection Sunday heartbreak has struck not only royals such as North Carolina, Kentucky and Indiana but also commoners such as Monmouth, UNC Greensboro and Green Bay.







WEB_ONLY_#19688_RTD_Yearly list of the first four teams excluded from the field

Seventeen of the 32 Division I conferences have had a team among what the NCAA calls “the first four out.” Three squads from the commonwealth — Virginia in 2013, plus Richmond and Old Dominion in 2015 — have felt the sting of almost.


NCAA tournament expansion seems more likely. Richmond’s Chris Mooney is smiling.

No league has been more affected than the ACC, which had eight teams other than aforementioned UVa just miss the cut: Pitt 2024, North Carolina and Clemson ’23, Louisville ’21, Notre Dame ’18, Syracuse ’17, Florida State ’14 and Miami ’12.

Joining Richmond among the A-10’s four exclusions were St. Bonaventure 2016, Saint Louis ’21 and Dayton ’22. The CAA’s lone first four out was Drexel 2012.

Four programs have been among the final exclusions twice: Seton Hall, Oklahoma, Colorado State and soon-to-be ACC member Southern Methodist.

ACC, A-10 views

A-10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade and her ACC counterpart, Jim Phillips, have served on the selection committees for the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, and any expansion of the men’s event would likely be mirrored on the women’s side.

But while McGlade is a staunch expansion advocate, Phillips isn’t quite there, even though he believes the men’s selection panel has undervalued the ACC in each of the past three seasons.

“How can you do it without undercutting what is the crown jewel of NCAA championships while still allowing access across the country?” Phillips told The Times-Dispatch in April.







DJ Burns and Jim Phillips

Commissioner Jim Phillips, here presenting the ACC tournament’s most outstanding player award to NC State’s DJ Burns Jr., supports exploration of NCAA tournament expansion. (Greg Fiume/Getty Images/TNS)




Conversely, at the A-10’s annual spring meetings last month, McGlade and the conference’s athletic directors and basketball coaches voiced their support to NCAA President Charlie Baker.

“The opportunity to talk directly to President Baker was important for the basketball coaches and athletic directors as they shared the importance of March Madness access and the desire to see the NCAA tournament expanded,” McGlade said in a news release.

Officials still must clear myriad hurdles before approving expansion, and the fact remains that virtually every Division I program has the opportunity to earn an automatic NCAA bid by winning its conference tournament.

The exceptions are the 18-member ACC and Big Ten, which are limiting their tournaments to 15 teams.

The NCAA tournament hasn’t expanded since 2011, when the field grew from 64 to 68 schools. But that stability is not unusual.

Indeed, the bracket remained at 64 teams from 1985-2000, until a play-in game was added in 2001.

Is expanding the field necessary? Absolutely not.

But a modest addition of 2-4 teams would not tarnish what Phillips rightfully calls “the crown jewel.”

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