The NCAA’s college football playoff model is currently being debated, and its college basketball postseason could soon be changed as well. At Big 12 spring meetings this week, NCAA president Charlie Baker revealed that one of his top priorities was to discuss expanding March Madness — and it could be coming as soon as this year.
“That would be the goal, to try and do this for next year,” Baker said. “We’ve been talking about 72 and 76 [teams].”
This is a massive development, as NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt told CBS Sports just two months ago that a decision on future NCAA Tournament expansion was unlikely to come soon. Issues tied to expansion are certainly financial, but there are also other topics to discuss, such as preserving the tradition that has become March Madness.
“Expansion, even in a modest level, is complex, more complex, I think, than has been recognized and reported, because it is expensive,” Gavitt said. “It’s expensive because of additional team travel, per diem, game operations, but also the basketball performance funds, the units that are earned throughout the men’s and women’s basketball championships.”
Currently, the NCAA Tournament field includes 68 teams, with four play-in games dubbed the First Four to decide the eventual 64 teams. Last adjusted in 2011, expansion has historically been good for college basketball’s famous tournament. When the field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985, the tournament became more popular than ever thanks to increased media attention, plus the four symmetrical regions which birthed the bracket phenomena sports culture is still obsessed with. In the first year of the 64-team tournament, the No. 8 Villanova Wildcats defeated the No. 1 Georgetown Hoyas. That No. 8 Villanova team is still the lowest-seeded team to ever win the tournament.
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