Illinois basketball has been chugging along under Brad Underwood, but it sounds like we got a safety net on Thursday afternoon.
There is a popular saying of the more the merrier. On Thursday afternoon, the NCAA committee took that saying to heart, and they all but guaranteed the Illini will make the NCAA tournament for the rest of time.
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The NCAA posted that the NCAA tournament will go from 68 teams to 76 teams. This new change will take place for the upcoming 2027 NCAA tournament.
For the most part, the format of the NCAA tournament won’t change. There will still be regions, and the bracket will be divided out from seeds No. 1 through No. 16 in each quadrant.
The big difference is the play-in games. On Tuesday and Wednesday, leading up to the first round, there will be games to see who gets in. Two No. 11 vs No. 11 and four No. 12 vs No. 12 games will take place for at-large bids. There will then be two No. 15 vs No. 15 and four No. 16 vs No. 16 games to see who gets those automatic bids.
Honestly, I see some complaining right now, but it isn’t that big of a change. There will be more games earlier in the week, which is never a bad thing. It will feature a bunch of low-level and bubble programs. Nothing of substance will be decided.
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Thankfully, none of this NCAA tournament change affects the Illinois basketball program
Let me tell you, if this change had happened a decade ago, I would be jumping for joy. I can’t tell you how many times Illinois was on the bubble in the John Groce era.
With Underwood at the helm, none of this change matters for Illinois. Not only have we been away from the bubble, but this program hasn’t even sniffed being on the bubble since before the pandemic.
In the last six seasons, the Illini have finished at worst a No. 9 seed. The other five years, we were a top-six seed in the NCAA tournament.
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There are complaints being thrown around out there, but this just gives us more to watch come tournament time. For Illinois fans, let’s sit back and watch the carnage.
This article was originally published on www.writingillini.com as Brad Underwood has Illinois basketball not worrying about new NCAA tournament format.
