The NCAA Tournament is wildly popular among fans, and arguably the most fun postseason in all of sports. The opening weekend of March Madness is unlike anything else: the pageantry, upsets, and wall-to-wall basketball all day is all absorbing. It's perfect.
So, of course, in the infinite wisdom of the powers that be in college basketball, there's a major push to change the NCAA Tournament. "If it ain't broke, let's break it anyway" seems to be the mantra of those in charge of collegiate sports nowadays.
This week, the Division 1 Men's Basketball Committee will hold its annual summer summit in Savannah, Georgia. One of the main things on the agenda will be the possible expansion of the NCAA Tournament to 72 or even 76 teams. The expectation is that a decision will be made on that point by the end of this week, and most believe the expansion is inevitable.
One question that is not being asked by the committee that should be: who asked for this? Every decision made in the last five years of college sports has been to the detriment of the fan experience. It's all about money. It's all about greed. And that's why the expansion is inevitable. It's not about access. It's about cold, hard cash. Don't let anyone tell you any different.
Matt Norlander proves that NCAA Tournament expansion is pointless
CBS' Matt Norlander penned a column on Monday that works as a scathing takedown of the possible expansion of the NCAA Tournament. He pulls historical data points and math to show that expansion is completely unnecessary.
Proponents of expansion will point to the fact that when the tournament expanded to 64 teams 40 years ago, there were 82 fewer Division I programs. According to Norlander, every single program added in that span is a mid-to-low major.
One of the most eye-opening statistics he points out is that since the field expanded to 64 in 1985, there have been 2520 NCAA Tournament games since then. Of the teams added to Division I over the last 40 years, they've won 19 total games in the Big Dance, aka less than 1% of the total games.
He also points out that the newly added schools aren't taking bids away from high-major conferences, which has been a popular talking point. Of those added to D1 since 1985, only one time has one of those programs earned an at-large bid to the tournament (UCF in 2019).
Norlander also points out that in the last decade, 83% of at-large bids have gone to programs in power conferences already. Do they really need more access?
Expansion will just further dilute the NCAA Tournament field, and lessen the value of the regular season. The college basketball regular season still matters, with the last month filled with anxiety among bubble teams. That anxiety will be lessened if the tournament field includes eight more teams.
The decision makers in college sports continue to devalue the regular season in both basketball and football. Every decision made is to increase games played in postseason tournaments, which, while popular and profitable, are not the be-all, end-all for fans of the sport.
The NCAA Tournament is perfect and does not need tweaking. And because of that, tweaking is inevitable.