LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- More.
The answer is always more.
In college sports, you don’t have to give me the question. I know the answer without the question. The answer is always more.
More.
More, more, more, more, more.
In the wacky new world of professional college sports, the most popular 4-letter word is more.
In this case, I’m talking about more men’s and women’s professional college basketball, especially in the NCAA Tournament.
Let’s be completely honest: We’re talking about more inventory that the NCAA can sell to its television partners so programs will have more revenue to pay players, coaching buyouts, assistant coaches in charge of charting deflections, nutritionists, massage therapists and media advisors.
For months, the NCAA has leaked enough trial balloons to fill the Superdome. The plan is to add one more game to the regular season and eight more teams to the NCAA Tournament. NCAA president Charlie Baker has talked about it enough times that you can be certain it’s coming.
Make it 32 regular-season games.
Make it a 76-team NCAA Tournament.
Why?
The last time Baker was asked that question, this is the best answer his handlers could give him:
“If you have a tournament that's got 64 or 68 teams in it, you're going to have a bunch of teams that are probably among what most people would consider to be the best 68 or 70 teams in the country that aren't going to make the tournament, period.
"The point behind going from 68 to 72 or 76 is to basically give some of those schools that were probably among the 72, 76, 68, 64 best teams in the country a way into the tournament.”
Oh, Charlie.
You need more handlers. Or better handlers.
Surely, you can do better than that. I’d respect you more and consider you a different type of NCAA leader if you said something like this:
“Look, we’re going to expand the field because that’s the easiest way to squeeze more money from our TV partners and fans.
“Look at baseball. They used to have one team from each league make the playoffs. Then it was two from each league. Then four. Now it’s six. We’re just following the professional model.”
Nope. Baker said the current size of the field was unfair to the handful of teams that get left out every year.
According to most observers, the last four teams left out of the 2025 NCAA Tournament were West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio State and Boise State.
I can’t speak for the Mountaineers, other than to note that West Virginia lost 9 of its last 15 games. WVU couldn’t make it past the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, losing to a Colorado team that endured a 13-game losing streak that lasted from Dec. 30 until Feb. 11.
That’s not the profile of the Walton Gang or the Untouchables.
I can give you an informed analysis of Indiana, the second team in the group that barely missed the field.
Nobody outside the IU locker room was clamoring for the Hoosiers to play in the NCAA Tournament. Nobody.
The only clamoring was for IU athletic Scott Dolson to make his decision on a coach to replace Mike Woodson and find a guy who could break the Hoosiers’ four-game losing streak against Nebraska and five-game losing streak against Northwestern.
A bid to the NCAA Tournament should be about rewarding excellence, not mediocrity. Teams in power conferences already have advantages in resources, tradition, facilities, media exposure and scheduling.
They should not be rewarded with another 8-game safety net of making a bloated field that devalues the regular season. More teams cheapens the accomplishment.
What’s the next move from the NCAA?
May I suggest something?
More participation medals.
There are three simple answers for any coach, athletic director, player or fan from a program that fails to make a 68-team field.
The first is schedule intelligently and win more regular season games.
The second is win your conference tournament.
The third is pipe down.
Two doors remain open for you all winter to play your way into a 68-team field. After the NCAA votes to clear everybody to schedule that additional regular season game, you’ll have 32 opportunities to prove you’re good enough to play in the games that really matter.
What the NCAA should do is keep the field at 68 — and add the kicker that any team that fails to post a winning record in conference play will be ineligible for the NCAA Tournament. That would actually add a bit of drama to the regular season.
But that’s not going to happen. The field will expand to 76 teams.
A few years from now, Baker or the next NCAA president will argue that the setup simply is not fair to the teams that are the 77th or 78th or 79th best teams in the country.
And the NCAA will leak its plan to add more teams to the tournament.
More.
The answer is always more.
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