Is the March Madness field going to expand from 68?

Few sporting events have as strong a reputation as the NCAA Tournament. The fact that it is hard to get one of the 68 tickets to March Madness is one of the defining features of the single-elimination tournament, which often produces plenty of drama as small schools get to try and take down power conference behemoths in true David vs. Goliath fashion.

A lot of fans and people who cover the sport feel that the NCAA Tournament is set at a perfect amount of teams and oppose expansion efforts for various reasons, including the fact that adding more teams would devalue the regular season and water down the caliber of teams in the field. There is, however, a renewed push to expand the NCAA Tournament being led by several power conference commissioners.

Will March Madness Expand From 68 Teams?

ESPN's Pete Thamel is reporting that there is sentiment amongst power conference commissioners, with the leader being Greg Sankey of the SEC, to expand the tournament to another figure of no more than 80 teams. Sankey has argued that power conference teams need more access to the NCAA Tournament, citing First Four runs from UCLA (in 2021 to the Final Four) and Syracuse (in 2018 to the Sweet 16) as evidence the bubble is capable of producing teams that can make deep runs. Sankey expanded on the concept by saying the following:

"We are giving away highly competitive opportunities for automatic qualifiers (from smaller leagues), and I think that pressure is going to rise as we have more competitive basketball leagues at the top end because of expansion."

While the argument Sankey is making is vouched in competitive terms, it all comes down to money at the end of the day. Each NCAA Tournament team earns a unit, or sum of money, for its conference for participating in March Madness with more units available for teams that advance further into the tournament. Ensuring more access for power conference teams would ensure more of that money flows to the bigger schools and there isn't a bigger money maker under the NCAA's perview than the NCAA Tournament.

While it feels like there is a big push for expansion, people within college basketball circles know that trying to break away from the smaller schools will damage the reputation of the tournament since the appeal of Cinderella stories like VCU, Loyola Chicago and Saint Peter's are just as important as epic games between blue bloods. The likeliest scenario appears to be another expansion by a multiple of four, such as a 72 or 76 team field, that would add more games to the First Four round.

It appears unlikely that any serious expansion efforts will occur prior to the end of the NCAA's current March Madness television contracts with CBS and Turner, which expire after the 2032 NCAA Tournament. Having those new games in the mix could lead to an increase in rights fees for the NCAA, which would in turn lead to more money flowing into the coffers of member schools.

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