Greg Sankey potentially has his eyes on expanding the men’s field of 68 teams.
Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey, arguably the most influential person in college athletics, said Thursday that he wants to “take a fresh look” at the NCAA men’s basketball tournament — perhaps with an eye toward expanding the current field of 68 teams.
Sankey warns that he’s “not ready to make headlines here yet.” But he’s also open to conversations about a Big Dance that doesn’t exclude small conference champions while potentially including more teams.
For example, he mentions the 2022 College World Series baseball championship, which was won by SEC member Mississippi – the last team in the field of 64 teams.
“If the last team in can win the national championship, and they’re in the 30s or 40s from an RPI or [NCAA] NET standpoint, does our current approach support national championship competition?” Sankey asks. “I think there’s health in that conversation. That doesn’t exclude people. It goes to: How do we include people in these annual national celebrations that lead to a national championship?
Sankey’s remarks related to the men’s tournament, but given the NCAA’s recent emphasis on an equal tournament experience for men and women, it’s conceivable that the discussion of an expanded bracket would apply. also at the women’s tournament.
There has been a rising tide of concern about being left out of March Madness among conferences that send only their tournament winners to the NCAA tournament — the underdogs that so often give the event its best moments and unique flavor. . Part of that comes from comments Sankey made to Division I Board members earlier this summer about the NCAA tournament looking different in the future.
Sankey insists he said the tournament “could” change, not that it would. But the suspicion among some mid-major and low-major programs is that their automatic bids will instead be given to more teams from the rich and powerful multi-bid leagues.
“March Madness is going to become a lot more controlled by a handful of schools,” Florida Gulf Coast president Michael Martin recently told a Fort Myers TV station. “And the automatic qualifiers that we now have to be in the A-Sun will disappear.”
Sankey, however, makes no mention of potentially removing automatic bids. He is aware that tinkering with one of the most popular formulas in college sports could lead to a huge backlash. Instead, we talk about the quality of the teams that either just make the field or are left out.
“I think [SEC member] Texas A&M should have been on the basketball court [last season],” Sankey says. “People didn’t agree. But the way they played at the end of the year, I firmly believe they were one of the best teams in the country. I’m biased. But anyone else, Dayton was one of the top four out of.
“Look at what UCLA did as an 11-seed [in 2021], what Virginia Commonwealth did as an 11-seed [in 2011], what Syracuse did as an 11-seed [in 2018] . These are three teams that played [in the First Four] in Dayton and went to the Final Four eventually. It should expand our thinking.”
(Sankey was conflicted two Syracuse appearances. In 2016, he made the Final Four as a 10-seed who did not play in Dayton, but did play against Dayton. In 2018, Syracuse was in the First Four in Dayton, but was eliminated in the Sweet 16.)
A potential method of expansion – which was not raised by Sankey – would be to have a quartet of First Fours, one in each region. That would increase the total number of offers from 68 to 80.
But quadrupling the moving parts would also increase the logistical hurdles for the NCAA. Adding eight teams to Dayton in a short time after Selection Sunday, then dispersing the winners to various sites around the country with a fair chance in their first round games, is not easy.
Still, Sankey sounds willing to explore several options for a bigger Big Dance.
“You just have to take a new look at everything,” he says. “As we collectively think, everybody goes to the corner and says, ‘I’m going to hang on to what’s mine.’ “But how do we contribute and build better together?”
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