Subscribe
Follow Us
Outside of college basketball coaches, and conference and NCAA executives, it's hard to find many people in favor of expanding the NCAA Tournament. Michigan State men's basketball coach Tom Izzo knows that, but gave his pro-expansion point of view nonetheless in an interview with Rick Pizzo for the Big Ten men's basketball YouTube channel.
“There’s a lot more Division I teams, No. 1,” Izzo said in the video posted last week. “And there’s a lot more people that put money into basketball, No. 2. And we see that football went from four to 12, now they’re talking 16 or 18.”
The additional teams in Division I today vs. in 2011 when the tournament last expanded is a common argument from the pro-expansion side. It does, however, fail to provide the context that all of those teams operate on the low-major level and are not competing for at-large bids to begin with — so access has not changed for the high major leagues and coaches in favor of expansion.
“You can water down a tournament,” Izzo continued. “I don’t think we should be going to 100. I don’t know what the right number would be, but if you look at it, how many better teams are there today than there were 20 years ago? There’s a lot better teams and there’s a lot more of them. There’s what, 363 or something? So I think that should play some of the part in it.”
Michigan State's Tom Izzo says schools are investing in basketball
Izzo's other argument is that more schools are investing in basketball, leading to an increase in quality across the board. He believes that means more quality teams are being left out of the field.
“I don’t want to lose… there’s something about, even though I’ve been a part of Cinderella’s slipper not fitting, I’ve lost to a 15-seed or a 14-seed, but that is what makes the tournament,” Izzo said. “And I think keeping those teams in and maybe expanding a little more so you get more of the better teams in could be good. But at 68 it’s not broken. I just think we’re getting more teams, people are putting more money into basketball, so there’s better teams.”
The NCAA is still considering three possibilities for the tournament, beginning in 2026. The first, and by far most popular, is to stand pat at 68 teams. It is also exploring expanding to 72 or, the least popular, 76 teams. Many expected a decision earlier in the month, but the NCAA could not settle on a final proposal and talks are ongoing.
