NCAA President Charlie Baker Prioritizes Expanding March Madness

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00:00And yesterday in Orlando at Big 12 spring meetings,

00:03we've seen a lot of news and notes from these spring meetings

00:07around various conferences in the last few weeks,

00:10a lot about scheduling and college football playoff.

00:13But this from NCAA president, Charlie Baker,

00:17who called expanding the NCAA tournament in basketball,

00:21one of his top priorities.

00:23Here is the report from David Rumsey of front office sports,

00:27another very reputable sports media network.

00:30NCAA president, Charlie Baker,

00:32said one of his top priorities here at the Big 12 spring meetings

00:35was to discuss expanding March Madness,

00:38which could come as early as 2026.

00:41Quote, that would be the goal to try and do this for next year.

00:45We've been talking about 72 and 76.

00:49That would be the amount of teams that now qualify for the big dance.

00:52See, I don't mind it.

00:53And I'm usually a hater of many things that people come up with,

00:56but I just look at basketball games that matter,

00:59football games that matter, and more of them is always a good thing.

01:02We're handicappers, we're content people,

01:04and adding more games to the NCAA tournament.

01:06Like, hey, you got an extra game in the 12 o'clock spot here.

01:09Like, nobody's going to argue that we don't like that.

01:11Sometimes we just like tradition.

01:12And the field of 64 has always made some sense.

01:15Then we okayed it for the first round, you know,

01:17in the first four in Dayton, which you know me, Ben.

01:19Like, I don't even like the first four games in Dayton.

01:21I just want to get to the meat and potatoes of it in those games.

01:23But meaningful games so you can talk about it and watch because maybe we're not

01:27talking about having, you know, low-grade first four teams.

01:31But I don't mind when, like, the 11 or 12 seeds of the UCLA brand where it's

01:34like, okay, I'm going to tune in and find something I like.

01:36Like, I don't like when the SWAC teams come in and they score 48 points and

01:40can't make any shots and they're just overpowered.

01:42Or the game is 52 to 52 with, you know, one minute to go.

01:45Like, I don't want that.

01:46But if you're giving us higher brand teams that we can recognize,

01:50there's no fault in that for me.

01:51Like, there's so many things I would do in college basketball outside of that.

01:54Like, hey, look, we're not going to have any buy-in games anymore.

01:56They're all gone.

01:56That November and December slate, that's gone.

01:59Game number one, you start in conference.

02:00Let's hit the ground running.

02:02But I don't mind an extra couple games.

02:03It doesn't ruin the experience for anybody.

02:05It just gives you more things to watch.

02:07For me, it completely diminishes the value because unlike DRS,

02:11I do not believe that it would add to the NCAA tournament.

02:14And those games would be play-in type games first for action in Dayton, Ohio,

02:19not between the teams that are really deserving,

02:21but teams a game or two above 500 from a high major league

02:25that barely qualified for the bubble.

02:27They were not good throughout 30 games in a regular season.

02:30And we are going to reward that incompetence or mediocrity

02:33to get a spot in the NCAA tournament.

02:37I do hear DRS's point about trying to make these games seem more

02:40significant.

02:41However, for me, it would do the opposite,

02:43diminish those significance of the regular season games

02:46in Donnie's favorite time of the year,

02:48late in conference action as we approach the end of February and March.

02:53We'll see if it happens.

02:55Of course, as we talk about in college football,

02:58the almighty TV dollar will ultimately win the day.

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