NCAA talks broadening hoops tourney to 72 or 76

• Dan Murphy, ESPN Staff WriterDec 11, 2024, 01:43 PM ET

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LAS VEGAS– NCAA president Charlie Baker is “bullish” on the prospect of the NCAA basketball tournaments broadening to 72 or 76 teams in the near future.Baker said he has been having productive conversations with tv partners and members of the NCAA’s basketball committees on expanding from the present 68-team bracket. He said the NCAA would need to decide to move forward by the end of this year’s March Insanity in order to execute the expanded field for the 2026 tournament.He said the competition is unlikely to grow any larger than 76 since of the minimal window they have to arrange games between the time when conference championships end and coverage of the Masters begins.”I’m bullish on the discussions we

‘ve had about going to 72 or 76, and I believe the committees want to think about that, but I do not think it’s going to be anything beyond that,”Baker stated after speaking about the future of the NCAA at a conference hosted by Sports Business Journal.The NCAA’s basketball committees presented propositions to broaden the competition last

June after a number of significant conferences and leaders such as SEC commissioner Greg Sankey openly pushed to create more at-large quotes for their schools.” We are handing out highly competitive opportunities for automated qualifiers [from smaller sized leagues], and I think that pressure is going to rise as we have more competitive basketball leagues at the top end since of expansion, “Sankey told ESPN last March.Baker told reporters his focus in the coming year is to implement changes made to the NCAA through the pending, industry-shifting antitrust settlement that will enable schools to begin paying players straight. He said he anticipates to start operating in January on the information of a system that will offer more flexibility for the major conferences to form guidelines that are better suited to their financial reality.When asked if the NCAA’s experience in arranging March Madness could provide any assistance to the College Football Playoff– which is not run by the NCAA– in its choice procedure, Baker stated that some dissatisfaction in the choice process is unavoidable.”There are always going to be individuals who thought it worked exactly the way it need to and individuals who believe otherwise, “Baker said.He added that one of the main differences between the 2 choice procedures for the two competitions is the College Football Playoff’s weekly release of brand-new rankings throughout the 2nd half of the regular season. The NCAA choice committee

shares limited ranking info only once before making its decisions about competition seeding.”I can’t figure out in my own head if it generates enjoyment and is interesting to individuals or if it just makes people insane as the season goes on to have this thing constantly move,”Baker said.