NCAA Basketball’s latest amendment was supposed to focus on inclusion, but UConn head coach Geno Auriemma isn’t buying into it for now. The collegiate governing body announced on May 7 that it’s expanding both the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments from 68 to 76 teams. Board of Directors chair Tim Sands cited the need to provide student-athletes and programs with “access to the greatest events in college sports” through this move, prompting an unhinged reaction from Auriemma.
Speaking about the NCAA’s new push to change the dynamics of college basketball, Auriemma clearly highlighted that this move is specifically designed to benefit the Power Four. “This is strictly a money grab for the Power Four,” he said.
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Auriemma’s assessment comes bearing weight, though. For context, the additional 8 teams qualifying for the tournament will receive at-large bids. It means that in the selection process, the 12-member committee will consider standard metrics, including teams’ strength of schedule, NET rankings, and win-loss records against Quad 1 opponents.
And, quite naturally, all of these metrics will be better for the Power Four teams, given the large number of Quad 1 opponents they face across the season. This gives the teams ranked 6-10 in these conferences’ table at the end of the regular season an opportunity to qualify for the tournament next season, one they didn’t have last season.
It just adds to the already increasing number of Power Four teams in the conference as the mid-major teams keep striving for opportunities. We saw it this season as well, where the top four conferences had 39 teams in the tournament. On the other hand, just two conferences besides the power four had multiple teams in the tournament: the Big East and the Atlantic 10.
Auriemma sounded the alarm regarding this growing dominance of the Power Four teams. And subsequently adds to their blooming revenue, courtesy of the revenue units they will receive from the NCAA upon qualification for the tournament, and later for their performances in the tournament. In his conversation, the UConn head coach called the entire system ‘rigged’.
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“It’s a rigged system when you think about it,” he said. “You don’t play anybody, but nobody wants to play you. It’s a rigged system, and it’s a system that’s intended for now, going forward, to benefit those schools that supposedly play in leagues that are so difficult that you have a below .500 record, you should get in.”
Credit: IMAGO
Geno Auriemma isn’t the only head coach critical of the NCAA’s expansion. Arkansas Razorbacks head coach John Calipari has echoed a similar sentiment, urging that the plan shouldn’t diminish the relevance of mid-major teams.
“As someone who has been both David and won some, and Goliath and lost some, that’s what makes this tournament special,” he said. “We can’t afford to lose that special piece of our sport.”
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Auriemma and the other coaches’ dissent might be quite valid. But the fact of the matter is that all the major committees of the NCAA, including the Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Committee, Division I Financial Committee, and the Division I Oversight Committee for men’s and women’s basketball, have given their nod to the expansion plan, confirming that we’ll get to see a 76-team tournament next year.
But amid this, the UConn head coach has recognized a concerning trend, which began with this NCAA expansion plan, that might hamper the credibility of the National tournament.
Geno Auriemma Outlines the Growing Trend of the NCAA
The latest expansion of the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament is the first of this scale in recent years. The men’s front saw a similar phenomenon back in 2011, when the field grew to 65-68, and on the women’s front, it added 4 teams in 2022, bringing it to 68 from 64. Geno Auriemma feels that this sudden expansion of 8 more teams might just be the beginning of the NCAA’s leniency towards the power four conferences.
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In his assessment, the UConn head coach said the NCAA’s expansion plan lacks substance unless it includes deserving mid-major teams rather than serving only as a feast for the top four conferences.
“I’m saying, if that’s not the plan to let more (mid-majors) in, then it doesn’t make any difference,” Auriemma said. “And that is not the plan, because this is the prequel to there only being 86 or 88 or 92 teams in the tournament, and they all come from four conferences. Or the way it’s going now, maybe there’s only 64 teams, and they come from two conferences?”
On an individual level, Geno Auriemma’s UConn will be at the receiving end of this expansion as well. More power for conference teams in the tournament adds to even more stringent competition. And quite naturally, leads to a tougher road for Auriemma and the Huskies in the tournament.
The qualification perspective is the least of Auriemma’s concerns, though. His team, UConn, has qualified through automatic bids 30 of the last 37 times after winning the Big East Conference Championships. But with increasing competition, it will be a spectacle to see if this expansion halts Auriemma and UConn’s dominance in the National Championships.
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