Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey, arguably the most influential person in college athletics, said On Thursday he wants to take a “fresh look” at the NCAA men’s basketball tournament—perhaps with an eye toward expanding the current 68-team field.
Sankey cautions that he’s “not ready to make headlines there yet.” But he’s also open to conversations about a Big Dance that doesn’t exclude small conference champions while potentially including more teams.
For example, he mentions the 2022 College World Series baseball championship, which was won by SEC member Mississippi — the last team into the 64-team field.
“If the last team coming in can win the national championship, and they’re in the 30s or 40s of RPI or [NCAA] NET point, does our current approach support a national championship contest?” Sankey asks. “I think there’s health in that conversation. That’s not excluding people. It’s going to: How do we include people in these annual national celebrations that lead to national champion?”
Sankey’s remarks pertained to the men’s tournament, but given the recent NCAA emphasis on equal tournament experience for both the men and women, it is conceivable that the discussion of an expanded bracket would also apply to the women’s tournament as well.
There has been a rising tide of concern about being left out of March Madness among conferences that send only their tournament winners to the NCAA tourney—the underdogs who so often give the event its best moments and unique flavor. Some of that comes from comments Sankey reportedly made to members of the Division I Council earlier this summer about the NCAA tournament looking different in the future.
Sankey points out that he said the tournament “could” change, not that it would. But the suspicion among some mid-major and low-major programs is that their automatic bids would instead be given to more teams from the rich and powerful multi-bid leagues.
“March Madness is going to become much more dominated by a handful of schools,” Florida Gulf Coast president Michael Martin told a Fort Myers TV station recently. “And automatic qualifiers that we now get for being in the A-Sun will disappear.”
Sankey, however, does not mention possibly taking away automatic bids. He is aware that tampering with one of the most popular formulas in college sports could lead to an enormous backlash. Instead, he talks about the quality of teams that either barely make the field or are left out.
“I thought [SEC member] Texas A&M should have been in the field in basketball [last season],” Sankey says. “People did not agree. But the way they played at the end of the year, I firmly think they were one of the better teams in the country. I’m biased. But someone else, Dayton was one of the first four out.
“Look at what UCLA did as an 11 seed [in 2021]what Virginia Commonwealth did as an 11 seed [in 2011]which Syracuse did as an 11 seed [in 2018]. Those are three teams that played [in the First Four] in Dayton and went to the Final Four later. It should broaden our thinking.”
(Sankey merged two Syracuse appearances. In 2016, it made the Final Four as a 10 seed that didn’t play in Dayton, but played against Dayton. In 2018, Syracuse was in the First Four in Dayton but was eliminated in the Sweet 16. )
One possible method of expansion – which was not raised by Sankey – would be to have a quartet of First Fours, one at each region. That would increase the total number of offers from 68 to 80.
But quadrupling the moving parts would also increase the logistical hurdles for the NCAA. It’s not easy getting eight teams to Dayton in short order after Selection Sunday, then scattering the winners to various sites around the country with a fair chance in their first-round games.
However, Sankey sounds ready to explore several options for a bigger Big Dance.
“Just look at everything,” he says. “The way we think collectively, everybody goes to the corner and says, ‘I’ve got to hang on to what’s mine.’ But how do we contribute and build it better together?”
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