Everyone knows the mood of that Sunday afternoon in March. The clock strikes 6 p.m. and you hear the theme song for CBS Sports’ NCAA basketball game: Da-da-da-da-da-dun-dun.
Then Selection Sunday began… the following week, the rush to gather your friends, fill out the grids, and determine which teacher or boss would let you watch the games in class or at work filled the country. Everyone united in the suspense and mystique of new matchups and old rivalries. That’s the magic of March Madness.
However, what we know today as the “plateau of 68” could soon change, as the powers that be race to explode this tableau.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, currently the most powerful man in college sports, championed NCAA Tournament expansion about five months ago, and ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips followed Sankey’s lead at ACC Basketball Media Day.
“We’re facing a squeeze that we need to address,” Phillips said. “A lot of schools are spending a lot of money on sports and not getting a chance to get to these championships.”
On January 3, 2023, the NCAA released a report proposing that all college sports increase tournament capacity to 25%, meaning at least 90 of the 358 D1 college basketball schools would make an appearance in March. But that angered many, including Big Ten basketball analyst Stephen Bardo.
“Why mess with something that’s already perfect? It was perfect at 64 teams,” Bardo said. “If we expand the tournament, will we have UMBCs, George Masons, Saint Peters? Will we see upsets and Cinderellas?”
There will always be surprises, that’s the nature of the game. Heat Check College Basketball writer Connor Hope says there could be even more, depending on how the new tournament is structured.
“I think it would increase their chances of winning a game,” Hope said. “Now even the 16th seed is going to play their first game against a 9th seed instead of a 1st seed.”
The eights and the nines – Syracuse has been through this before. The bubble, a constant topic of conversation in the 315, would also change with a new tournament
“Your bubble will no longer be Pitt or Ohio State,” Hope said. “The bubble will become the mid-table teams rather than the top-tier teams.”
The permutations and possibilities for restructuring are endless, but it all comes down to one thing, says CBS’s Adam Finkelstein: the almighty dollar.
“The economics of it, regardless of the theory, ‘Oh if VCU wasn’t in the top four, they couldn’t succeed,’ won’t matter if it’s bad for business,” Finkelstein said. “If we’ve learned anything over the last few years, it’s that if it’s good for business, it’s going to happen.”
“In order to preserve the mystique of the NCAA Tournament and allow mid-table teams to get a piece of it, while keeping the top-tier teams happy, I think expansion is inevitable,” Hope said.
The college sports landscape is changing, and March Madness is the latest game-changer. But the memories of the tournaments, the magical runs, the upset victories and the national championships, aren’t going away anytime soon.
