NCAA tournament expansion? Coaches in Cleveland 1st-round games weigh in on its potential
CLEVELAND — The NCAA Tournament remains one of the great spectacles in all of sports. Yet, even it can't escape the changes that have overcome all of college sports in recent years.
The tournament last expanded in 2011, when it went to the current field of 68 teams. Before that, it was featured 64 teams from 1985 until 2001, when a 65th team was added.
However, another sizeable change could be coming to the tournament. There's been rampant talk of a potential expansion of at least four teams and, potentially, eight.
The topic was one USA Today Network's Chris Easterling, Brad Bournival and Mike Popovich posed to many of the coaches who were in Cleveland Thursday for first- and second-round games at Rocket Arena.
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Here's what those coaches said when asked about it:
Saint Mary's coach Randy Bennett on his agreement with expansion:
"I think that selection committee, I think they have a tough job," Bennett said. "You try and figure out who's the best at — say you're taking 37 at-larges, you're trying to pick between 35 and 39? I don't think it's possible to get it exactly right. It's going to be in someone's opinion, unless you just go straight with the numbers, which I'd be for.
"But if you don't, if you're going to add subjectivity into it, you're going to — somebody is going to be unhappy. So I am all for adding eight teams or whatever they're talking about adding. I think that would help some mid-major team, maybe two of them. A lot of them — those power conferences, they have good teams. I'm not going to say that — it's just hard to get in. That's the first thing I said. It's hard to get in this tournament. I do think with where college basketball is right now, I think right now the depth of good teams is the best I've seen it. I'm not saying at the very top it's the best, but you can go pretty deep and have good teams now. I followed it hard this year because we're trying to — you want to know what your NET is, your Ken Pom is, whatever metric you're following. You just look at those teams, and they're all good, down to like 60.
"I think they should add. I hope they add. I think it would help our league. I think it would help mid-majors. I'm not saying it's going to be eight more mid-majors. That's not going to happen. But I think it'll help us get one or two. There were only four at-large teams that made it other than the Power Four and Big East, and that was three Mountain Wests and one in the WCC, and we were one of them. I understand how difficult it is to make it. That's been the case for — even though we've had high seeds — it's still been the case for the last four years. But even more so this year. I hope they make that move."
New Mexico coach Richard Pitino on being a mid-major in field of 68
“I think everything is geared to help the Power Fours right now, and that's just the system is what it is,” Pitino said. “I don't look at us like a mid-major. I understand the term, but we get 15,000 a game. There's not a whole lot of difference between our resources and when I was at Minnesota. Now, just the metrics and the way that they're breaking down at-large bids, it's going to be more and more difficult.
“You look at the SEC — not to say they're not really good; certainly, they are — but every game is a Quad 1 opportunity, so it kind of is what it is. I'm not as offended by expanding as everybody else is. I don't think it's going to really substantially change a whole lot.
“I mean, we're in a profession right now. I'm a coach who's been fired for not going the tournament enough. You've got football, about 60% of teams are going to bowl games and coaches are keeping their jobs and players are not having to turn over all the time. I don't see why it's so bad to have a little bit more in there, so I don't think it would ruin the tournament by any means. I think it's going to happen, but I think everything right now is geared towards Power Four.”
Robert Morris coach Andrew Toole on Power Four influence on expansion
"In terms of the expansion, my fear is that most things that are getting decided are what's best for Power Four," Robert Morris coach Andrew Toole said. "Meanwhile, one of the reasons that people watch this tournament is because of the mid-majors and the low majors. Hopefully, we don't lose sight of that. So however expansion occurs, if and when it occurs, and usually when there's a small groundswell of expansion talk, that usually means it's coming down the pipe.
"So we've got to get ready for it. I just hope that they keep the opportunity for mid-majors and low majors to be a part of this because I don't care what anybody says, as much as it means to be in the NCAA Tournament across the board, when you win your regular season, you win your conference tournament championship, it's different than when you come in sixth place.
"If college athletics was all about the high majors and the Power Fours being what drives this, sure, when the Final Four comes, that's what drives it, but the ratings for a FOX, ESPN, CBS Sports Network Monday night game that has Wake Forest/Florida State would be way higher if everyone just cared about the Power Four schools. For some reason, these games today and tomorrow, the 15-2s, 14-3s, the 12-5s, those draw the eyeballs of people that don't watch basketball the other 363 days a year, and that's a real unique thing that we can't lose."
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo on mid-majors such as Friday's opponent Bryant
"Well, you know, sometimes I hate them," Izzo said. "But most of the times, I love them. You know, let's face it — the first thing I tell my team, the first night we had it, we had a team meeting right after the selection, I said, you have uniqueness in your coach. There's things you like about me, things you don't like about me. But one thing you should know is, I have experience. I've experienced a 2-15 with a great team getting beat by Middle Tennessee. I've been a 7 seed and made it to a Final Four.
"We've kind of did it a lot of different ways and been involved in some upsets, and I've been involved in some upsets the other way. I think the difference with basketball and March Madness, what makes it so spectacular but so grinding for us and hits you right in the gut, is football — I know now they're at 12 teams in their playoff, but it's the 12 best teams in the country. We have 68 teams of all different levels and all different schools that have 3,000 and schools that have 60,000. It's just so different.
"Everybody loves Cinderella. I mean, my mom was probably — if she's pulling for them tomorrow, she's 98 and three quarters years old, I'm going to be mad at her, but everybody loves the underdog. Everybody loves the small school. Everybody loved when Valparaiso — I still remember the shot and the things that have happened."
Bryant coach Phil Martelli Jr. on mid-majors' place in NCAA tournament
"I think when you go out and about, and if you just randomly grabbed somebody on the street and said, talk about the NCAA Tournament, one of the first things, if not the first thing they're going to say is, the little guys, the upsets," Martelli said. "You find these random places — like, there's a ton of people probably in this room that didn't even know Bryant existed four days ago, five days ago. Well, now you do, and that's special.
"Certainly, we all see Michigan State on TV. We all see Alabama or Marquette, see them on TV over and over and over again. And I get that, they've earned that. But now you're seeing Bryant. You're seeing Robert Morris. You're seeing those schools, and you're like, okay, who are they? What are they about? Because there are fascinating stories throughout this thing.
"… I know we're probably headed towards expansion and towards whatever, but the way it's set up, whatever that expansion looks like, but the way it's set up right now, we can't lose that. That's the fabric of this tournament. That's the essence of this tournament. Anything else would be doing a disservice to all the student-athletes, all the universities that are out there competing their butts off, again, for us, from mid-June until now nonstop. It's what we all love about it, right? We've loved about it since we were kids. That should not change."
Marquette coach Shaka Smart on potential expansion and Power Four involvement
"What do you think? You know the answer to your own question," Smart said. "We live in a time where the power, if you will — we use that word now — the power lies with the Power Four in terms of those decisions.
"I think that it is very, very, very difficult now, probably harder than ever, if you're not in the top maybe six or seven conferences to make the NCAA Tournament as an at-large bid. So John Groce's Akron team, for example, they're an NCAA Tournament team whether they won in that MAAC championship game or not. Do they make the NCAA Tournament without winning? No. ...
"Because the way that we've set things up with this system of quads, the reality is, if you're in the better leagues, you're going to play so many more — look at the Big Ten and SEC teams and how many Quad 1 games that they've played. But if your record is, like, below 10 percent winning percentage, is that better than not playing any at all? I'm not saying it is or it isn't. … But, yeah, I think if it expands, you'll see power conference teams with losing records get in, and not that those teams aren't good, but just that's who has the power right now."
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
Contact Brad Bournival at bbournival@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @bbournival.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Tom Izzo, Randy Bennett, others weigh in on NCAA tournament expansion
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