{"id":227,"date":"2026-05-13T12:04:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=227"},"modified":"2026-05-13T12:04:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:04:24","slug":"march-madness-even-with-an-expanded-field-ncaa-tournament-too-big-to-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=227","title":{"rendered":"March Madness: Even with an expanded field, NCAA tournament too big to fail"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The face of college sports is undergoing an extreme makeover. The NCAA just injected more filler and basketball Botox into that ever-changing complexion by expanding the measure of March Madness to 76 teams.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more A flurry of new coaches, a St. Mary\u2019s move, history in Wellesley, and more Tuesday HS sports takeaways<\/a><\/p>\n

Both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s NCAA Basketball Tournament are getting plumped up from 68 teams to 76 for 2027. Sixty-eight was enough if you ask this college basketball connoisseur, especially for the women\u2019s game where parity remains a work in progress. But fans aren\u2019t the constituency this expansion is designed to appease. That would be the power conferences \u2014 the Southeastern Conference, the Big Ten, the Big 12, and the Atlantic Coast Conference \u2014 who in college sports are akin to the corporations that dictate American democracy. It\u2019s their world, the rest of us are just inhabiting it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This Spirit of 76 isn\u2019t about increased representation. (About 21 percent of the 361 Division 1 men\u2019s teams will now make the tournament, up from 18.) It\u2019s about increased domination of college sports by the pigskin plutocrats.<\/span><\/p>\n

Expansion ensures an uneasy peace between the football-driven Power 4 and the rest of the NCAA ecosystem by placating the moneyed class with increased access for their mega-conference members. That\u2019s what\u2019s really driving tournament expansion because the disaffection or defection of those power conference schools represents an existential threat to the NCAA and the men\u2019s basketball tournament, which is the governing body\u2019s biggest moneymaker. The NCAA brought in $1.56 billion in 2025, according to posted financial statements, and roughly $1.3 billion was derived from the men\u2019s tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, the bubble is more forgiving for the teams that finish in the bottom half of the standings in the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC. They accounted for 35 of the 68 bids in this year\u2019s tournament, which featured 31 automatic qualifiers and 37 at-large bids. That came a year after the SEC got 14 of its 16 teams in the Big Dance. Under the new format, there will be 32 automatic bids \u2014 the Pac-12 reborn from the ashes of radical conference realignment \u2014 and 44 at-large bids.<\/span><\/p>\n

The First Four in Dayton, Ohio, will be replaced by 24 men\u2019s teams playing 12 games across two sites. These preliminaries will be known as the March Madness Opening Round, according to an NCAA release.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives more teams a chance to play in the best basketball tournament in the world,\u201d said NCAA president Charlie Baker, via email. \u201cAnd gives those teams a chance to earn [monetary] units for their conferences that can be reinvested in their programs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Baker, the popular former Massachusetts governor, has brought stability and pragmatism to the NCAA during this perilous period. He\u2019s trying to stabilize college sports at a time when they\u2019re being sloshed around like a sailboat in a hurricane, buffeted by winds of change. Baker is a deal-maker.<\/span><\/p>\n

He secured the future of the tournament \u2014 and future windfalls for the NCAA \u2014 by preventing the power conferences from pushing out the Little Guys altogether. The NCAA estimates tourney expansion will yield $131 million in new revenue for member schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

As much glee as there might be in seeing the NCAA cartel get humbled, when it\u2019s happening at the hands of a more self-serving cabal of colleges it\u2019s distasteful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Based on the impetuousness and squabbling displayed by the Big Ten and the SEC over the College Football Playoff format, does anyone want these guys at the hands of the wheel of the basketball tournaments?<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Amanda Gutierres stoppage-time penalty kick gives Legacy a win over Orlando, extend unbeaten run to four games<\/a><\/p>\n

The sentiment went that there was a growing movement afoot by power conference power brokers to sideline the mid-majors and the automatic qualifiers, viewed as bid stealers by the Big Boys. That would\u2019ve definitively bifurcated college basketball into the Haves and Have-nots.<\/span><\/p>\n

It also would\u2019ve threatened the secret sauce that makes the NCAA Tournament a cultural touchstone.<\/span><\/p>\n

The hope inside the halls of the NCAA is that expansion will lead to more Miami (Ohio) University-types earning at-large bids. Miami went undefeated during the regular season (31-0) and then was upset in the Mid-American Conference by UMass before squeaking into the tourney.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the reality is it\u2019s much more likely that major conference teams with mediocre results like 17-16 Auburn, one of the first four teams left out of this year\u2019s field, will gain access. Auburn, which finished 7-11 in SEC play, won the NIT, leading to more chest-thumping from the power conference peanut gallery.<\/span><\/p>\n

In college basketball circles, there\u2019s hope that more power conference teams now might be willing to schedule their less financially fortunate brethren with greater tournament leeway. That would boost the mid-major schools\u2019 credentials.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s still hard to square how this benefits the mid-majors as much as the power conferences. Expansion could allow a few more schools like New Mexico into the tournament. But that\u2019s up to the selection committee. There will always be braying from the autonomy conferences that their mediocre member is more deserving, citing Quad 1 and Quad 2 wins, a component of the almighty NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) rankings metric used to stack teams.<\/span><\/p>\n

One thing we should agree on is that tournament expansion isn\u2019t about including more teams capable of cutting down the nets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the tournament expanded from 64 to 68 teams in 2011, no First Four team has played for a national championship. Two, VCU (2011) and UCLA (2021), reached the Final Four.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bigger isn\u2019t necessarily better, but it\u2019s the inevitable March of time in March.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am old enough to remember the doomsaying that took place when the men\u2019s tournament went from 16 to 32, from 32 to 42, from 42 to 48, from 48 to 64, and from 64 to 68,\u201d wrote Baker. \u201cMost people these days like the field as it is. I get that. I have no doubt they will like this version too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more With their PWHL season over, Fleet players ready to run it back, as is<\/a><\/p>\n

The reality is the NCAA Tournament is too big to fail, even if it\u2019s too big.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fans were not the constituency the NCAA hoped to appease with the expansion from 68 to 76 teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"\nMarch Madness: Even with an expanded field, NCAA tournament too big to fail - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=227\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"March Madness: Even with an expanded field, NCAA tournament too big to fail - Boston Relocation Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fans were not the constituency the NCAA hoped to appease with the expansion from 68 to 76 teams.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=227\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Boston Relocation Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-13T12:04:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=227#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=227\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c08a982d5d5e7124cea9158df226037e\"},\"headline\":\"March Madness: Even with an expanded field, NCAA tournament too big to fail\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-13T12:04:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=227\"},\"wordCount\":1033,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=227#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/23dbce3df1de50c2364a4f9140611c9c.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=227#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=227\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=227\",\"name\":\"March Madness: Even with an expanded field, NCAA tournament too big to fail - 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