Why expanding the NCAA Tournament to 76 teams is bad news for college basketball originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The NCAA Tournament is set to expand from 68 teams to 76 starting next season, according to a recent report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
“The NCAA has initiated the final steps to expand the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments to 76 teams,” Thamel stated Tuesday.
“The expansion, which has been discussed for well over a year, is on track to be formalized in the upcoming weeks and would begin this coming season. Sources indicated mid-May as a potential timeline for an announcement.”
“While there are still steps to take in terms of approvals via various NCAA committees, a source indicated "those are just formalities."
While many are excited about the highly anticipated move, it would be challenging to argue against the notion that it’s bad news for college basketball. The current NCAA Tournament puts ample pressure on bubble teams to play their best basketball down the stretch of the regular season and during the start of the postseason to earn an at-large bid to the Big Dance.
If they don’t deliver, they’ll run the risk of being on the outside looking in come Selection Sunday. Take Auburn this past season, for example.
With 68 total teams making the NCAA Tournament, and 37 of them punching their ticket via an at-large bid, the Tigers comprehended that despite their impressive metrics (top-5 strength of schedule and five Quad 1 wins), they needed to make a lengthy run in the SEC Tournament to make the Big Dance last season.
Auburn failed to do so, getting eliminated in the second round, finishing with a mediocre 17-16 record, and missing March Madness for the first time since 2021.
By allowing 76 total teams to make the NCAA Tournament, with 45 at-large selections, a team with a similar resume to Auburn’s would undeservingly earn an invitation to the most prestigious postseason event that college basketball has to offer in the foreseeable future.
In the grand scheme of things, it'll be far more likely to witness several NIT-worthy programs compete in March Madness simply because there are more spots available, which isn’t what the tournament was originally designed for.
Receiving an at-large NCAA tournament bid won’t mean as much as it used to, which is the harsh reality that college basketball fans should brace themselves for going forward.
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