NCAA close to decision on tournament expansion

[Da Coach]

ESPN is reporting that the NCAA is close to a decision on expanding the postseason tournament to 72 or 76 teams-
https://www.espn.com/espngamer/ncb/story/_/id/45578147/ncaa-close-decision-tournament-expansion

If the decision is made to expand, the expansion would begin in the 2025-26 season, per sources, and the men's tournament would expand to no more than 76 teams....
The men's tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. An additional team was added in 2001, and the expansion to the current 68-team format came back in 2011.
The expectation is that both the men's and women's tournaments would grow by the same amount of teams.

 

[64NIT]

ESPN is reporting that the NCAA is close to a decision on expanding the postseason tournament to 72 or 76 teams-
https://www.espn.com/espngamer/ncb/story/_/id/45578147/ncaa-close-decision-tournament-expansion

If the decision is made to expand, the expansion would begin in the 2025-26 season, per sources, and the men's tournament would expand to no more than 76 teams....
The men's tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. An additional team was added in 2001, and the expansion to the current 68-team format came back in 2011.
The expectation is that both the men's and women's tournaments would grow by the same amount of teams.

Why don't they just throw in all the high-major teams, even those with losing records, and call this the tournament? Mid- and low-majors will be left outside looking in.

 

[egib52]

Why don't they just throw in all the high-major teams, even those with losing records, and call this the tournament? Mid- and low-majors will be left outside looking in.

That's likely what will happen. All of the P4 will be in, and invite only for mid majors.

 

[Da Coach]

NCAA President Charlie Baker said today that a decision on whether to expand the NCAA tournament will be made "sometime this fall."
If that is the case, it most likely would not be put into effect until the 2027 NCAA Tournament.

Baker: NCAA tourney expansion call likely in fall

NCAA president Charlie Baker believes a decision on whether to expand the men's and women's basketball tournaments will be made "sometime this fall," he said Thursday.

www.espn.com

In that ESPN article, Baker acknowledged:
"There are, every year, some really good teams that don't get into the tournament for a bunch of reasons," Baker said. "One of the reasons they don't get in is because we have 32 automatic qualifiers. There are 32 conferences in D-I, and their conference champion gets into the tournament. Now, I love that. I think it's great and I never want that to change. But that means there's only 36 slots left for everybody else and in many cases there are teams that are among the 50 or 60 best teams in the country."
He cited 2024 St. John's and 2024 Indiana State as teams that should have been in the NCAA tournament field as at-large bids..."
"I don't buy the idea that some of the teams that currently get left out aren't good," Baker said. "They are. And I think that sucks."

 

[64NIT]

There are, every year, some really good teams that don't get into the tournament for a bunch of reasons

All that has to be done is make sure teams with losing conference records and easy wins over cupcakes don't get into the tournament. There is no reason for eight teams from a 12-team conference to get into the Dance. The playing field needs to be leveled. They can do this without expanding the tournament. Of course, the almighty dollar speaks volumes.

 

[yoda]

Wild idea to expand...
Take the top 3 teams from each conference plus 30 or so at large bids - so that you have 128 teams,
then seed them and give the top 32 a double-bye and the next tier of 32 a single bye,
so that after one round (Monday-Tuesday-Wed) of the 1st week post-season), 32 teams are gone & after two rounds (Tues-Wed-Thurs), you still have 64 teams left and then go from there.
I do not like the idea some conferences use in their tournies where the remaining teams are re-seeded after the early rounds,
because that;s essentially a penalty for playing well at tournament time and pulling an upset.