NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament doesn’t need to expanded

Greg Sankey, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

Leave the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament alone. It is amazing. It was an iconic event with 32 teams, let alone 64 teams. There was no real reason to expand to 68 teams. Much less 80 teams, 96 teams, 120 teams, or any of the ridiculous numbers you’ve been proposing lately.

Bigger is not necessarily better. Just because SEC Commissioner Sankey and Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren continue to expand membership in their respective conferences doesn’t mean the NCAA tournament needs to expand, as they recently pushed.

“Next year, the last few years, it’s going to be like, ‘Why? Why are we doing this? Why are we doing this?’ Warren said at Big Ten Basketball Media Days:“Because so many times I’ve seen people say, ‘Well, that’s because we’ve always done it,'” Warren said. “If we can provide [college athletes] Unique opportunities and experiences, traveling, learning and meeting new people [and] If I’m fighting for the championship, I’m very interested. “

“Unique Opportunities and Experiences” are the consultants’ words. You know the joke about consultants. A consultant is someone who asks you to borrow your watch and tells you what time it is.

In the spring, Sankey said he believed the NCAA needed to “reconsider” the tournament. Doubled at last week’s SEC Basketball Media Days.

“What I’ve been through is a series of conversations at the national level about fears things will be taken away through this NCAA transformation process,” the commissioner said. Instead of worrying about stealing something, why not take a step back and think about how we grow? The commitments I’ve spoken about here, the expectations of many programs across the country, so why not promote those opportunities?”

“Promoting these opportunities” is the saying of companies that “want to make more money.” The more teams participating in the tournament, the more games. (“Inventory” is a corporate term.) The more games there are, the more the NCAA can seek broadcasting rights through television and streaming. It’s always about money. And in college-level professional sports, money is never enough.

The truth is that basketball programs have plenty of “opportunities” to “promote” right now… the so-called regular season. The more teams in the NCAA Tournament, the less important the regular season becomes.

The regular college basketball campaign is watered down enough as it is. Here in Hoops Country, from November 1st through the end of February, he’ll be keeping an eye on what happens. Most of America is not. I’m only interested in March Madness. If.

Expanding tournaments (emphasis on “possibility”) might be fine if the current 1-bid league allows more parties to participate. But we know it won’t happen. Instead, these additional 12 invitations will go to the 9th-placed team in the Pac-12, or the 11th-placed team in the ACC, or the 14th-placed team in both the SEC and Big 12.

Coaches love the idea of ​​expansion. Of course, so does the coach. More NCAA bids mean more job security. A coach would say not about it. The coach will say he wants more kids to experience the thrill of playing in the NCAA Tournament. But wouldn’t the thrill be less when it’s accessible to just about everyone? What makes NCAA tournament bidding so special and what makes Selection Sundays so special is the experience of actually stepping on the field. .

Of course, these protests do not matter. The Sankeys and Warrens, as before, expand the meeting again and again to establish their ways. Collegiate athletics, on the other hand, risks losing the very elements that make collegiate athletics special in the first place. All in pursuit of the universal dollar.

Expansionists are coming to the NCAA Tournament now.

I have no doubt they will get it too.