The fan sentiment surrounding the NCAA Tournament’s imminent decision to expand from 68 teams to 76 teams can summarily be described as overwhelmingly negative. No one is asking for more play-in games. No one wants to wait until Wednesday night to fill out half of their bracket because they have no idea who will actually be playing in the first round. And no one thinks adding eight middling teams to the field is going to result in more excitement on the court.
But one ESPN college basketball analyst is all-in on bumping the field size up by eight teams.
Seth Greenberg, a veteran analyst on ESPN’s College GameDay, believes wholeheartedly that expansion to 76 teams is a positive for the NCAA Tournament. And his message to everyone who thinks differently: “Get over yourselves.”
My thoughts on @MarchMadnessMBB pic.twitter.com/Ml8ha41uMs
“For those of you losing your mind that the NCAA Tournament expanded from 68 to 76, get over yourselves,” the former Virginia Tech coach said in a social media video. “When you have these mega-conferences, you’re playing 20-game schedules, and you know what, you might be 8-12. But those eight games that you won, five of them might be against teams that are in the top-25. And then out of conference, the way things are right now you see more good games out of conference, you might have two wins against top-25 teams. All of the sudden, you have seven wins against top-25 teams. You got seven wins against teams that are going to advance in the NCAA Tournament.
“And yeah, your record might not be great. It might be 18-12, or it might be 17-13, but you’re a team that can win games in the NCAA Tournament. And more importantly, you expanded eight more teams. I’ve been in my house, with my players, that win 10, 11 ACC games, seven, six, five games against the field, and didn’t get in.
“And how about the mid-majors? The expansion is going to potentially give the Atlantic 10 a better opportunity, the Mountain West a better opportunity, the Missouri Valley a better opportunity to get more teams in the tournament. So, adding eight teams? Please, just get over yourself. College basketball and the NCAA Tournament will be just fine. By the way, look at the non-conference games that are being played right now because people aren’t afraid to potentially take a loss because they know that it will help their body of work. The NCAA Tournament is in great hands, and 76 will have no impact on the regular season, nor will it have an impact on the NCAA Tournament.”
Greenberg might be right about expansion opening up more opportunities for both power-conference and mid-major schools. Lord knows his Virginia Tech teams could’ve benefited greatly from a few extra at-large spots. But it’s completely reasonable for fans to be upset. March Madness is seen as the single greatest postseason in all of sports, and any changes to it will rightfully be scrutinized.
It’s one thing to play one play-in game, like under the 65-team format. It’s another to play a “First Four,” as has been the case for many years now. But to play 12 play-in games? That’s practically an entirely new round of basketball being added. And for what? So a few more SEC and Big Ten schools can get in?
Greenberg’s GameDay colleague Jay Williams took that exact side of the argument on Get Up Wednesday morning.
Until the first 76-team tournament is played, it’ll be impossible to say if expansion has materially damaged our beloved March Madness. But the NCAA will certainly be fighting an uphill battle in terms of optics when next March rolls around.
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