{"id":16068,"date":"2025-06-26T10:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T10:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/16068\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T10:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T10:45:09","slug":"morning-commute-thoughts-on-potential-ncaa-tournament-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/16068\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Commute: Thoughts on Potential NCAA Tournament Expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the Morning Commute<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today we\u2019re talking about potential NCAA Tournament expansion.<\/p>\n

We won\u2019t spend the last four commute posts talking Mizzou Football Recruiting (though the Tigers did land three-star Edwardsville WR Devyon Hill-Lomax on Wednesday<\/a>). <\/p>\n

Instead, let\u2019s talk about the potential NCAA Tournament expansion where it could increase to 76 teams in 2026 \u2014 per a report from ESPN\u2019s Pete Thamel on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

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Sources: The decision on whether or not to expand the NCAA men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball tournaments for 2026 is expected to come in the next few weeks. The expansion would be to no more than 76 schools. The NCAA remains in talks with its media partners.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) June 24, 2025<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For someone who loves college basketball, more NCAA Tournament games should be a good thing, right? Well, not if the selection committee is going to reward eight more mediocre power conference teams who were probably undeserving anyway to reach the field of 68. I\u2019m assuming the majority of people don\u2019t want to see a 17-15 Syracuse team have a shot at the Big Dance. (\u201cIf it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it.\u201d)<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re going to expand the tournament to 76 teams, I guess that\u2019s fine \u2014 but maybe reward the deserving mid-major teams that won their conference regular season (but did not win their conference tournament title for the automatic bid)?<\/p>\n

Yeah, I\u2019m still annoyed that Mizzou lost to Drake in the first round, but that Drake team entered the NCAA Tournament with a 30-3 record … as an 11 seed. It\u2019s clear that those Bulldogs deserved a better seeding fate. If Drake would have lost the MVC Championship Game to Bradley, it\u2019s possible that they wouldn\u2019t have received an at-large bid … and that\u2019s a shame.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what the exact format would look like, but if you\u2019re going to expand to 76 teams \u2014 simply reward the mid-majors as the eight more teams. That\u2019s just my opinion on it. <\/p>\n

Time for a poll. <\/p>\n

Poll
\n What are your thoughts on a potential NCAA Tournament expansion?<\/p>\n