NCAA Tournament Expansion to 76 Teams Sparks Debate on Quality vs Quantity

Poll question, well, do you have one right now? I do, Dan. Okay. Uh off the NCAA tournament expansion, um is expanding the tournament to 76 teams a good idea? Sure, the more the merrier. Or no, it's perfect the way it is. We actually didn't even need the first four. That was Todd's Todd's verbiage. Uh I just don't know if anybody was saying we need this. Now, I know that in college football, okay, we went from four to 12. And I said in my lifetime, I'm good. Well, they realized how much money, everybody's excited about it. Now, we're

going to go to 16, then we'll go to 24. When we get to 24, it'll still be interesting, very profitable. I just worry because these leagues, they never, you know, relegate, they never move the clock back, they never go, "Hey, let's go back to 32 teams." That's not happening. You know, NBA gave us the play-in game. Uh baseball's added more playoff spots. I mean, every league is adding more. Like, if you can't make playoffs in hockey, it's like, you should be fired. And half the league make the playoffs?

The exclusivity that's attached to this is long gone. So, I understand it. But I think that there can be that, boy, we're we're teetering on the brink here of watering down the regular season. Um everybody's going to make the tournament. Yes, Todd. And that could be arguments for why coaches don't want extra teams cuz you couldn't make it with that many teams in the field, you could definitely lose your job as opposed to, well, all these teams, I'll definitely get one of those spots. Yeah. All right. So, we'll come up with the poll question. A little bit more with March Madness expanding. They're going to make the Now, the paper is signed, from what I'm told, probably two to

three weeks down the road they'll make this official, but it is happening. A lot of reports on this. We'll settle on a poll question. Dylan, let's start there. Uh well, we got up so far, Dan, uh is expanding the NCAA tournament to 76 teams a good idea? 91% think it's perfect just the way it is. Okay. Um we also have, will college coaches on the outside looking in of the six 76 team field be uh still cry snubbed? Of course they will, or nope, the days of winding you got jobbed are now over.

Yep. Can't say that uh you know, we should have been in there. You know, your bubble teams, it's a thing of the past. They will though. They'll still say that. They will. This is what I worry about. If you win your conference, now, let's say you're Wofford, or throw out a smaller school, Miami Ohio winning the MAC, you should be in the 64 team field. I don't I want these other schools that didn't win their conference, that they're going to be playing on Tuesday and Wednesday. Like, show a little respect to these teams that were great from start to finish. Now, you can say,

"Well, their competition not the same as the SEC or Big 10." I understand that. But I just don't want to lose sight of the, you know, the smaller schools, the mid-majors. Give them something. Don't don't make them play a play-in game. Or the first, you know, whatever we're calling it. Let them make the 64 team field or 68 team, but have the other teams other schools, they do Tuesday and Wednesday. Yes, Paul. And that's what happened with the first four this year. It was Howard, 16 seed, UMBC, uh Prairie View A&M, Lehigh, Miami of Ohio, all those teams that you just talked about. If you win your conference, you should make the tournament.

And I'm not talking about, you know, the 76 team field. You should make, you know, when we fill out our brackets, your name is there on the bracket, not something that we had to write in because you won on Tuesday or you won on Wednesday. If you're going to expand, I understand this, NCAA making money needs to make money. Uh you know, you got lawsuits, NIL lawsuits, like, you know, they need uh kind of a shovel full of cash there in reserve, which sounds strange to say that, but, you know, when you look at all the conferences and schools making the money, NCAA still has to make money. And you add eight more teams, 10 more teams, whatever it's going to be, as long as you keep them on Tuesday and Wednesday,

you're going to have two sites, two neutral sites, and then you're going to play those games. We start, you know, the tournament starts on Thursday anyway. Like, I don't know how many people fill out their brackets before Tuesday or Wednesday. I don't. And there is a kind of an exhibition feel to the games on Tuesday and Wednesday. And it shouldn't be that way, but that's the way it is. They position them to play into the tournament. The NCAA labeled it, you're playing into the tournament. Like, you're almost there. It's kind of like being invited to a party, but you have to stay on the doorstep and wait till somebody leaves and then you get to come in.

But you're going to expand, but make sure we take care of the mid-majors. You know, don't have them like picking up scraps going, "Uh we get to play on Tuesday to then play on Thursday, maybe." Yes, Todd. How small are we going to have to make the font of the lettering as we add more and more teams so that you can print out a bracket and it stays on one sheet. It's starting to get close to that, you know, confusion there. And growth is inevitable, but every league eventually has to decide about expansion. Is it worth you have the quantity, but I worry about the quality. With all of these different

leagues, you're going to add, add, add. And at some point, it subtracts from really what this is all about. Um and I love playoff competition. It's it's great in all sports. Um I just don't want to have too many teams in there. Yeah, Paul. But it feels like these every league and every network is looking for more space on the calendar to place live events. Yeah. And it's like the NCAA and the conferences found a loophole. We can keep the 64, do this funky play-in game first four on Tuesday and Wednesday, and we don't upset the traditional 64 apple cart. And hey, we can just put more games in the afternoon

or at night and not really mess with everyone's tradition of 64. Yeah, I don't know if anybody's going to be out on the streets protesting because we'll watch it. I just I want it to be special, and maybe it's it's special proof just because we watch, there's always going to be a player, there's always going to be a team. Yeah, there's always magic, always. And ratings were up this year. I think that we'll the one thing that we are going to lose is that Cinderella story, it feels like. Like, I don't think Tennessee in a play-in game on a Tuesday and then winning a couple of games is a Cinderella story. Cinderella story is Wofford

or Miami Ohio, a school or schools where you don't know where they are. Um well, you know, Miami is in Ohio, but then they get confused for Miami, Florida, but, you know, you get these other schools. And I think that's the fun part of it. You get to see a player that you never thought you would see. Like, you know, Steph Curry at Davidson. Like, that's the magic, and I hope that we always try to ensure that we have that. And do I want to have Cinderella stories? I do. And it plays out because Cinderella story, you might win two games. And really, think of the exposure that these schools get.

You won on Thursday and you won on Saturday. Then you don't play until the following week. You get all of that coverage. And it that is invaluable to a school. And I think that's the fun part of it. Where you get some exposure, their coach gets interviewed on SportsCenter, your star player, that's great, great for the smaller schools. Because I do think we're going to get to the point, and I said this a couple of weeks ago, that we're going to look at mid-majors like junior colleges. If you're a player and you're going there for two years, is somebody interested in me that's in the SEC or the Big 10? Or Big 12, ACC. So, I got two years to kind of get on the radar of some of the bigger schools. And if I was a coach, I would be viewing it as

I hopefully get you for two years. And then you're probably going to, you know, get in the transfer portal. The fact that almost half of men's basketball teams this year were in the transfer portal should tell you everything you need to know. This is just, you know, you're a turnstile. It's like, revolving door. Come on in. How long you going to stay? Can we get one more spin on the revolving No, you're gone. That's what it's become. And you got these kids who are staying in college longer because you can make more money. And it feels like the rich are going to get richer here. Cuz Kentucky can get kids coming in, but you still get Kentucky boosters to pay you to stay a little while longer.

Duke, I mean, the blue bloods are going to be able to get they're going to pick and choose from the smaller schools. I wouldn't recruit. I wouldn't take a high school kid. I'd be like, give me somebody who's a proven commodity. I mean, I might miss out on A.J. DeBanza, but that's okay. I mean, he's great, but it's one and done at BYU. Yes, Marv. Yeah, you see what UConn and Michigan have done the past few years where you might get a really good high school ball player, but the rest of your team, they're 22, 23 years old, and they're transfer guys from other

schools. So, that might be the play. And when I talked to Danny Hurley when the season ended, he said, "Yeah, that's kind of what they do. They look for that one McDonald's All-American, and then you're going to get guys transferring in." Michigan had an entire roster. Illinois. Like Now, there's some coaches who don't like this at all. They don't think that these players should be eligible to come over to the United States, but it just feels like the doors are open, man. Like you know, I always go back to the scene where Kevin Bacon in Animal House, and he's telling everybody to stop, you know, and they squish him. That's what it feels like is happening with the NCAA. Hey, hold on. Uh, no, too late. Yeah, Paulie.

It's interesting, too, cuz a guy like A.J. DeBanza by being a top three pick, BYU can't match that. But if you're like the 20th pick of the draft or 25th, you could be afforded. You could be like Mullins from UConn. If he was top five, he's gone. But if you're in that next tier past the lottery, they could afford to keep you. Yeah, and then all of a sudden you say, "Hey, why don't you stay? Why don't you show that you can be the man?" Which is what I would want from this kid. I want to see if you can carry the load every single night. Because there were games where he disappeared, and then there were games where you go, "Man, that guy's first round draft pick."

I know that we draft on potential. Um Potential gets you fired. I want a proven commodity, and that's why if I'm running a big-time program, I'm just going to go around the country, and I'm going to say, "I'm going to take you and you, and then we might have a couple of recruits coming in, and then maybe some holdovers." That would be my approach. Cuz I want a larger sample size than, "Man, your highlight high school highlight tape looked awesome." My high school highlight tape looked awesome. It didn't quite pan out for me. Yeah, but it's like, you know, they don't show any negative plays in your high school highlight tape. Yeah, that'd be great if they did. You know.

Give you a truer sense of what you're getting.