“Strictly a Money Grab”: Geno Auriemma Makes Feelings Known on NCAA’s 76-Team Expansion

NCAA Basketball’s latest amendment was supposed to focus on inclusion, but UConn head coach Geno Auriemma isn’t buying into it for now. The collegiate governing body announced on May 7 that it’s expanding both the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments from 68 to 76 teams. Board of Directors chair Tim Sands cited the need to provide student-athletes and programs with “access to the greatest events in college sports” through this move, prompting an unhinged reaction from Auriemma.

Speaking about the NCAA’s new push to change the dynamics of college basketball, Auriemma clearly highlighted that this move is specifically designed to benefit the Power Four. “This is strictly a money grab for the Power Four,” he said.

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Auriemma’s assessment comes bearing weight, though. For context, the additional 8 teams qualifying for the tournament will receive at-large bids. It means that in the selection process, the 12-member committee will consider standard metrics, including teams’ strength of schedule, NET rankings, and win-loss records against Quad 1 opponents.

And, quite naturally, all of these metrics will be better for the Power Four teams, given the large number of Quad 1 opponents they face across the season. This gives the teams ranked 6-10 in these conferences’ table at the end of the regular season an opportunity to qualify for the tournament next season, one they didn’t have last season.

It just adds to the already increasing number of Power Four teams in the conference as the mid-major teams keep striving for opportunities. We saw it this season as well, where the top four conferences had 39 teams in the tournament. On the other hand, just two conferences besides the power four had multiple teams in the tournament: the Big East and the Atlantic 10.

Auriemma sounded the alarm regarding this growing dominance of the Power Four teams. And subsequently adds to their blooming revenue, courtesy of the revenue units they will receive from the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/strictly-money-grab-geno-auriemma-123000861.html

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Publish date : 2026-05-09 12:30:00

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