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Legendary Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski retired from coaching in 2022, but he still has plenty of opinions on the current state of the game. Krzyzewski spoke out against NCAA tournament expansion Monday, calling the idea “a big mistake.”
Krzyzewski’s expanded on those thoughts during an appearance on Jeff Goodman’s “The Field of 68: After Dark” show. When asked about current NCAA president Charlie Baker, Krzyzewski, unprompted, brought up NCAA tournament expansion, saying he was not a fan of the idea.
“There are less teams capable right now than ever before,” Krzyzewski said. “There are many have nots, and it’s not their fault. I don’t think you mess with something that is gold. It’s gold.”
Baker has spoken in favor of expansion a few times, the most recent of which came in February, when Baker said he would “like to see it expand.” The issue has been discussed since at least 2024, though “logistics” prevented it from being put into place for the 2025-26 season. Discussions over NCAA tournament expansion typically focusses on so-called “snubs” that miss out every year.
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A few months after last season’s bracket reveal, Baker said too many good teams miss out on the tournament every year.
“There are every year some really good teams that don’t get to the tournament for a bunch of reasons,” Baker told the crowd. “One of the reasons is we have 32 automatic qualifiers (for conference champions). I love that and think it’s great and never want that to change, but that means there’s only 36 slots left for everybody else.
“I don’t buy the idea that some of the teams that currently get left out aren’t good. I think they are. And I think that sucks,” he continued.
The selection committee is considering expanding the men’s tournament to either 72 or 76 teams. It’s possible that expansion will come during the 2026-27 season. It’s unclear whether the women’s field would also be expanded.
Currently, both the men’s and women’s tournaments feature 68…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/mens-college-basketball/article/duke-legend-mike-krzyzewski-says-hes-not-in-favor-of-expanding-ncaa-tournament-thats-a-big-mistake-145128417.html
Author : Chris Cwik
Publish date : 2026-03-03 14:51:00
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