NCAA Tournament has no plans to expand despite ACC’s all-inclusive proposal

Despite the ACC proposing a plan to have every Division-I team make the NCAA Tournament, the NCAA isn’t entirely on board with that idea.

Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski spear-headed a proposal that was unanimously approved by ACC coaches that would allow for all eligible D-1 teams to make the NCAA Tournament.

After March Madness was canceled last year and there was no NCAA Tournament, there was a considerable deficit from expected revenue, so this would have been a way to extend the tournament by a week and bring back some much-needed TV revenue.

“Given the uncertainty of this upcoming season, I join my fellow ACC coaches in fully supporting the inclusion of all eligible Division I teams to participate in the 2021 NCAA tournament,” Krzyzewski said. “This is not a regular season. It is clearly an irregular season that will require something different. Our sport needs to be agile and creative. Most importantly, an all-inclusive postseason tournament will allow a unique and unprecedented opportunity for every team and every student-athlete to compete for a national championship.”

For those reasons and because March Madness is a fun experience and more sports is never a bad idea in my mind, I was in favor of this concept. However, I was in the minority after initial reactions were largely negative and made a mockery out of the NCAA Tournament.

For now, that’s why the NCAA has no plans of expanding the NCAA Tournament from the 68-team field.

“Every college basketball team’s goal is to play in the NCAA tournament because everyone loves March Madness,” NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said in a statement. “Certainly we missed it this year and can’t wait for 2021. While all who care about the game are entitled to their opinion, and we’ll always listen respectfully, at this time we are not working on any contingency plan that involves expanding the tournament field.”

There is still much uncertainty about the college basketball season, including when it’ll start, where games will be played and if the schedules will need to be adjusted to exclude non-conference games. Once those hurdles are cleared, then the NCAA can begin to think about postseason plans.

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