As an avid college hoops fan, I’m outraged about the recent decision to expand the NCAA basketball tournament to 76 teams, and you should be too.
The NCAA has decided to expand the college basketball tournament from 68 to 76 teams next year, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. With a glance, one may view this positively. More teams in March Madness means more competition, and for basketball fans, more games. But the problem isn’t inherently the number of teams that will participate; it’s the sort of teams we’re going to see next year.
The tournament expansion will add eight at-large bids. Meaning that no additional automatic-qualifiers will be added (though with the revival of the Pac-12 Conference, that may change).
The selection committee does the world a favor every year by highlighting the teams “on the bubble” who did not make the NCAA tournament. For the sake of this argument, lets look at the men’s bracket.
The first four out of the 2026 tournament were the University of Oklahoma, Auburn University, San Diego State University and Indiana University. Only San Diego State represents a non-power conference, which finished with a record of 22-11, losing in the Mountain West Conference Tournament Championship. The other three teams listed finished under .500 in conference play.
I will give credit where it is due: Auburn had a tough schedule and proceeded to win the National Invitation Tournament, but mediocre power conference schools are being given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the tournament, which is tarnishing the legacy of March Madness.
For the second straight year in the men’s bracket, not a single non-power team made the Sweet 16. While there are a million issues to point to with this, one solvable issue is the seeding of these teams.
Saint Louis University, which finished 29-6 and had one of its most successful seasons ever, was bestowed a No. 9 seed and was forced to play eventual national champions, the University of Michigan, in the second round. While SLU had speed bumps throughout the year, even one by the hands of Archie Miller and the Rhode Island Rams, they more or less deserved to hold at least a top-seven seed. The same can be said for Miami University, which finished 32-2, but my point is made.
In the women’s bracket, a whole separate issue presents itself. The lack of parity leads to an awful lot of ugly first-round matchups, often decided by 35 or more points. This season, only one double-digit seed made it to the second round. Though it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the NCAA made this decision without even giving the women’s bracket a second thought.
Perhaps the ugliest part of the expansion is that this decision is driven mostly by power conference commissioners and Charlie Baker, the president of the NCAA. The change was made to maximize profits, nothing more, nothing less.
I won’t sit and pretend that the NCAA hasn’t always had revenue in mind. But before name, image and likeness, that was easier masked behind athletes obtaining an education and engaging in their community. This upcoming season, colleges will be allowed to have sponsored jersey patches, allowing more money to flow in.
I’m in favor of allowing college athletes to make money and move if they feel they aren’t a great fit. But with the current lack of regulations around NIL, the landscape is on a downward spiral with no end in sight.
The reality is, from athletes to coaches and even school administrators, the profit-generating college sports world has become professional, and with that, transactional. Though maybe this is bigger than basketball, and more reflective of our culture.
