Brett Yormark wants to see more basketball teams in the NCAA tournament.
The Big 12 commissioner thinks March Madness is great as it is with a field of 68, but he also thinks it could get even better with 76 teams.
His conference, in particular, could benefit from adding a larger bracket.
“It looks like there might be some modest expansion,” Yormark said. “The number 76 is circulating. … The data shows that if we go to 76, it will be the Power Four conferences that will benefit most. I think at the center of that will be the Big 12. I’m all about access.
It seems obvious that the Big 12 will send at least nine teams to the NCAA tournament later this month, but that number could rise to 11 if bubble teams like Cincinnati and Kansas State make the Big 12 tournament.
These two teams would have a better chance of reaching the Big Dance if the field was expanded. The Big 12 may be able to send a dozen or more teams in the coming years after Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah join the conference.
“We have the deepest conference in America,” Yormark said. “We have nine teams that will definitely be there. We could probably have up to 11. So wider access is great for us.”
Expansion of the NCAA Tournament has become a hot topic in recent weeks, with conference and university leaders touting the possibility, even though no one is complaining about the current format.
Most believe that the core tranche will remain unchanged even if there is an expansion. The biggest difference would be visible during the play-in round. Instead of eight teams converging on Dayton, Ohio, for the First Four, you could see 16 teams competing in the First Eight.
Yormark will not stand in the way of this type of expansion. But he made one thing clear when he spoke to the media at the T-Mobile Center on Tuesday.
“We are the best conference in basketball,” Yormark said. “And if the NCAA is considering changes to the tournament, we need a seat at the table for any decisions that are made.”
How to improve Big 12 refereeing?
Yormark also touched on a few other important basketball topics during his media interview Tuesday night.
One topic that is sure to raise eyebrows among fans, players and coaches is Big 12 officiating. The conference has seen more animosity than ever between coaches and officials this season with Bill Self, Kelvin Sampson and Scott Drew all getting kicked out of conference games.
Jérôme Tang also castigated the head of the Big 12 Gary Maxwell following a loss to Houston.
Is there anything the league plans to do to improve officiating? Or maybe just the relationship officials have with coaches?
“At the end of each season, we put everything through an audit to see where we can be better as a conference,” Yormark said. “We will follow this process from now on. I’ve obviously been to a lot of games this year and obviously there’s been some issues along the way. But I think we manage them accordingly. Every year you’re going to have these problems that arise. The question is: is there an opportunity for us to improve and handle them differently?
“I don’t know the answer to that question yet. But we’re going to do this exercise and we’ll see where we end up.
Big 12 didn’t game the system
How Big 12 teams schedule their non-conference games has also been a hot topic in recent weeks, with Clemson coach Brad Brownell going so far as to say that the conference “manipulated the system” when it comes to NET rankings.
His problem: The Big 12’s 12 teams battled against generally weak competition heading into conference play.
Yormark doesn’t think that’s the case.
“It’s just noise,” Yormark said. “You have to eliminate the noise. …We ranked high on every possible metric. So to me, it’s just noise, and we’re the No. 1 conference in America. We have been showing this for many, many years. This will only get stronger next year.
