As we go through the month of March, there is one large event that happens every year in the sports world. The event is the NCAA basketball tournament, also known as March Madness, where 68 teams are seeded and put into a large playoff bracket to see who comes out on top.
With the recent event of Selection Sunday, many people were upset to see some teams get into the tournament over others. This raises the question of should the tournament be expanded further?
There are both pros and cons of the tournament being expanded. The pros would be, obviously, letting more teams be able to compete. Teams that are in mid major conferences can only get into the tournament by winning their conference championship. For example, the number 1 seed in the Southern Conference tournament was 24-9 Chattanooga. However, they ended up losing in the tournament, and 19-15 Wofford ended up getting the bid. However, an expansion could give a team like Chattanooga a chance in the tournament, even if they didn’t win their conference tournament.
Teams that are able to get an at large-bid, which are all determined by the Division I Basketball Committee, can also get left out or “snubbed” from the tournament. In recent events, many people are complaining about North Carolina getting into the tournament, over other schools like West Virginia and Indiana that might have seemed more deserving.
On the other hand, expanding the tournament could mean there would be a lot more play-in games for the tournament. In addition to this, the playing field would get so watered down that there is a lot lower chance of a big first-round upset happening. Even if an expansion is made, there would still be teams that are left out that might be deserving of a bid, and the same arguments that people have now will continue.
The last expansion that the NCAA basketball tournament was in 2011, when it added the 68-team format and created the play-in games to see who makes it into the round of 64. March Madness started off with just eight teams in 1939, and it grew steadily until it got to what we have now.
All things considered, expanding the NCAA basketball tournament would not be a good thing. It would just water down the competition. The tournament already has over 64 teams, and adding more teams that have very little to no chance of winning the championship just seems unnecessary.
