The middle of March is a banner time to be a sports fan. The field of 68 teams is unveiled. Fans begin booking travel plans. Student sections make pilgrimages to boisterously showcase their school pride. Brackets get filled out – and subsequently busted within the first few games.
A Sweet Sixteen is established. Then an Elite Eight. Then a Final Four. Many a One Shining Moment happens throughout those three weeks.
Hype builds for the national championship game – and one team is left standing among the field. This past season, the spoils were bestowed on the victor that was UCLA as it prevailed over South Carolina in commanding fashion.
Coach Cori Close delivered the first national championship in the history of the UCLA women’s program. And six of its seniors – Lauren Betts, Gabriela Jaquez, Kiki Rice, Angela Dugalić, Gianna Kneepkens and Charlisse Leger-Walker were all drafted into the WNBA.
It appears that the NCAA wants to completely mess with that near perfection that is March Madness in the name of greed. The NCAA, according to reports, appears poised to expand the tournament field to 76 as soon as next year.
How would such a 76-team tournament work? According to reports, 52 teams would be in the main bracket with 24 teams vying for the remaining 12 berths to complete to the more traditional field of 64. In addition, there is no more First Four.
This means that the tournament will have now expanded from 64 to 65 to 68 to 76. It has been hinted that this has been discussed and debated for years.
Anyone can see that this is nothing more than a money grab for the NCAA – a money grab that has been in the works for a while. Actually, in a perfect world for Charlie Baker and the NCAA, this is not the furthest they could go.
One would not be hard-pressed to find an article hinting that the NCAA really wanted to expand the tournament to 96 teams. The NCAA has to understand how unpopular of a move this would be among fans, but it is popular among two very constituencies.
The first is the NCAA itself. The second are its television partners at ESPN and CBS/Warner Bros. Discovery (plus its radio partner Westwood One).
Then, there is the matter of the additional berths. Will these additional berths be coming from the power conferences or will this create more opportunities for mid-majors who would have otherwise been on the bubble?
Considering how the schools from the power conferences have been trying mightily to all but box out mid-majors, our guess is these additional at-large bids will be coming from schools in the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12.
Notice the NCAA spin on this? They are already attempting to brand this as creating more opportunities for schools to be part of the dance that is March Madness. That may be true, but the $76,000 question as we posed earlier is if this will lead to more possible Cinderella runs or not considering that these additional at-large bids could be courtesy of the Power 4 Conferences.
If, as we suspect, these additional at-large bids are courtesy of the Power 4, then it solidifies that this is all about money. More money for the NCAA, more money and ad revenue for ESPN. More ad revenue for CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery (which could be under the same roof soon considering they are talking about a merger). Also – more gate money at the venues.
And while the “creating more opportunities” line sounds like good PR spin, did the NCAA see what happened with the women’s tournament? Last time we checked, the Final Four that did battle in Phoenix were UConn, South Carolina, Texas and eventual champion UCLA – all number one seeds.
Yes, there were a few near upsets, but the cream of the crop always rises to the top in late March and April.
That saying is true – if something is not broke, do not fix it. There are lots of things throughout the whole of the sports world that need fixing – March Madness was not one of them.
But tell that to the NCAA as this is exactly the sort of decision one would expect when a politician of Baker’s ilk is heading the organization. We heart the Madness on the court, but this decision is simply mad – and not in a way that deserves a One Shining Moment montage at its conclusion.
