New-look March Madness? NCAA president floats expanded tournament format

March Madness is one of the biggest spectacles in college sports and it might be about to get a bit bigger. Organizers are considering expanding the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011.

The news was confirmed on Thursday by NCAA president Charlie Baker, who was appearing at the Big 12 spring meetings. A wide range of topics were covered in the far-reaching discussion but talks of a potential expansion will be of particular interest for fans.

“We’ve had good conversations with CBS and WBD [Warner Bros. Disney],” Baker revealed. “Our goal here is to try to sort of get to either yes or no sometime in the next few months because there’s a lot of logistical work that would be associated with doing this.”

He continued: “If we were to go down this road, you just think about the opening weekends, who has to travel the longest, it gets complicated.”

The NCAA Tournament is currently comprised of 68 teams, having expanded from 65 back in 2011. Speaking on Thursday, Baker talks through some of the complications of expanding it further.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

This would help to ensure that the NCAA’s best teams - and the biggest draws - are most likely to get entry into March Madness. Baker specifically gave the example of Indiana State, a strong team with a 28-6 record, who did not make it to this year’s tournament.

Now that the idea of an expansion has been floated it’s easy to see it picking up momentum. Few teams will be inclined to argue against having a better shot at making the illustrious competition, while the lucrative broadcast and commercial benefits should help to counteract the additional cost for teams.

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