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It is always instructive when something bad happens to look back and figure out how in the world we got here.
Today we wake to the mustache painted on the Mona Lisa: The beautifully perfect masterpiece of the NCAA tournament bracket graffitied with an additional eight teams. It would seem, much like Rabbi Noah and Joanne, nobody wants this.
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And yet.
So how? How did the very bad, very unnecessary idea of tourney expansion take hold? Quite simply, actually. The bullies threatened to take their ball and go home.
Back when the Big Ten decided to bloat itself from coast to coast, causing an avalanche of conference expansion, the rumblings started about a possible secession. With all the power and money nestled among the football-playing schools – and no NCAA oversight over the football championship – why did those leagues even need the NCAA anymore? Why couldn’t they just create a governance structure of their own and leave everyone else in the dust?
No one really thought they would do it, but even the possible threat that they could started a series of dominoes that equated to the NCAA rolling over to have its belly rubbed. The Power 4 earned a good level of autonomy within the NCAA governance structure, earning the right to require the NCAA to get their approval on major decisions, creating sports-specific silos and even suggesting that they create a new NCAA subdivision unto themselves.
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In January 2023, the NCAA also approved a committee recommendation that all sports’ championships ought to include 25% of its teams. The math did not math for a 68-team field for 300-plus basketball teams, and so in the midst of their relatively hostile takeover, the bullies also tossed the leaded balloon about tournament expansion.
The argument was, shockingly, not for the greater good; it was to protect their own entities.
With so many more members in their leagues, teams would beat each other up, bastardizing their conference records and thereby making it harder…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/why-march-madness-expanding-even-150946768.html
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Publish date : 2026-05-08 15:09:00
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