Why expanded NCAA Tournament hurts mid-majors

In case you haven’t heard the news, the NCAA Tournament officially expanded from a 64- to 76-team field, adding eight more games to the first four. While I would argue it’s bad for the sport (something I’ll touch on below), corporate greed says otherwise.

Advertisement

On the surface, you might think it’s good for mid-majors across America. More teams equate to greater opportunity, thus meaning more mid-major bubble teams that could potentially unseat the power programs as the proverbial “cinderella story.” However, that’s not necessarily the case, let’s dive into it!

Why the mid majors will be fighting an uphill battle:

Instead of just four at-large programs competing for just two spots, 12 will be playing for six spots. The other six spots will be for the lowest seeded automatic qualifiers, a nifty opportunity for those conferences to secure more units. But the overall gain is a net negative, not a positive.

As we’ve previously outlined, the teams who have benefitted the most from the current era of college basketball is the power programs. If the NCAA was its own individual stock market, the SEC, Big Ten, Big East, ACC and Big 12 would easily have the most shares. Those conferences wield the most power; they bring in the most money, and the NCAA, at the end of the day, is a business. And who better to call the shots than the biggest kids at the table.

Advertisement

NIL has recklessly spread throughout college athletics. But the programs in those aforementioned conferences have, rightfully, benefitted the most with the use of the transfer portal. The Mountain West is a stepping stone. Long gone are the days where mid-major programs would have four-year college players who were perennial all-conference players. Now, they see greener pastures — figuratively, and financially — elsewhere, capitalizing monetarily. That has worked for several players.

The same goes for the tournament. An increased tournament only benefits those renowned programs, who play a bulk…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/why-expanded-ncaa-tournament-hurts-190000772.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-05-22 19:00:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.