ACC proposing increase in size of NCAA basketball tournament field
With its 15 members making it the largest of the NCAA’s major basketball conferences, the Atlantic Coast Conference obviously believes there is strength in numbers.
That philosophy apparently also applies to the NCAA tournament, as the ACC is pushing for four more teams to be added to the field, bringing the total to 72 teams.
ACC commissioner John Swofford made the announcement at the end of the league’s spring meeting in Florida and said that the coaches endorsed the proposal in large part because it would cut down on travel.
“The idea of having two First Fours, if you will, maybe geographic,” Swofford said, per Raleigh News & Observer. “That’s such a quick turnaround. You could have one maybe in Dayton and one in the western part of the states. But we will be proposing that.”
Miami coach Jim Larranaga brought up the percentage of NCAA basketball teams that make the NCAA tournament as compared to the number of Football Bowl Subdivision teams that make it to bowl games.
“There are always bubble teams that could have and should have been invited that could go on a big run that don’t get invited,” Larranaga told ESPN. “Sixty-eight of 351 Division I teams make the field. That’s 19 percent of the teams. Seventy-two teams would make it 20 percent. That is not a huge increase when you compare it to how many football teams make it to a bowl game.”
There were 39 bowl games last season (not including the national championship), and 70 total teams participated in bowl season. With 129 FBS programs, 54 percent of football teams played in the postseason compared to 19 percent of basketball teams that made the NCAA tournament.
What Larranaga didn’t point out is that there is more than one postseason basketball tournament, including the NIT, CBI and CIT. Still, even when you add in those tournaments, less than 40 percent of Division I programs play in postseason tournaments.
It’s not just the ACC’s commissioner and its coaches who are pushing for more NCAA tournament teams. A mid-major coach is doing the same.
Buffalo coach Nate Oats said the idea of tournament expansion didn’t come up during the Mid-American Conference spring meetings, but he would be in favor of more teams getting into the Big Dance, ESPN reported.
“I can guarantee you we’d be all for that,” Oats said. “The chances of (the MAC) getting multiple teams in would go up.”
Most, if not all coaches would likely be in favor of adding teams to the NCAA tournament, as many of them have bonuses tied to tournament appearances.
The early Cinderella team of this past year’s tournament, UMBC, put a bonus into coach Ryan Odom’s contract where he earned an extra $7,500 just for making the tournament and another $10,000 by winning a tournament game.
The NCAA increased the number of tournament teams from 65 to 68 in the 2010-11 season as it went from one play-in game to four.
Play-in games have been a part of the tournament since 2001. Prior to that, there were 64 teams in the tournament from 1985-2000.
Swofford also mentioned other proposals outside of expanding the tournament. The ACC has proposed rule changes such as widening the lane, resetting the shot clock to 20 seconds after an offensive rebound and moving the three-point line back.
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