Expand NCAA tournaments in basketball and other sports, ACC commissioner says
Posted October 18, 2022 4:00 p.m. EDT
Updated October 18, 2022 4:15 p.m. EDT
Count ACC commissioner Jim Phillips in for expanding the 68-team NCAA men’s basketball tournament. And other NCAA postseason events, too.
Citing the financial investment in athletics at ACC schools and several high-profile snubs, Phillips said the moment is right for expansion.
“The time is now,” Phillips said at the ACC Tipoff basketball media event in Charlotte. “I really would like us to expand.”
The College Football Playoff, which is not run by the NCAA, is expanding from its current four-team format to 12 teams by 2026, if not earlier. The NCAA Transformation Committee is considering a proposal to allow up to 25% of teams playing a sport to qualify for the NCAA postseason, which would mean about 90 teams among the 363 that play Division I college basketball.
Phillips said he is not sure the NCAA can reach that threshold in every sport.
“But I think the closer we can get to that number is best for student-athletes,” he said. “The ability to increase a championship can happen. It can happen. There will be a lot of work that needs to be done. It has to be done thoughtfully. We need to make sure we're listening to the membership.”
The first NCAA men’s basketball tournament, held in 1939, had eight teams. The field doubled to 16 teams in 1951, expanded to 32 teams in 1975 and went to 64 teams in 1985. It climbed to 65 teams in 2001 and 68 teams in 2011.
Phillips suggested byes for higher seeds could happen in an expanded field.
The conference champion for all 32 Division I leagues automatically qualifies for the field. The final 36 spots are at-large selections by a committee. Phillips said he felt the ACC deserved more than five bids to the men’s basketball tournament and more than eight bids to the women’s basketball tournament last year. Wake Forest, which went 13-7 in the ACC regular season and was 23-9 overall on selection day, was the most notable ACC men’s basketball team left out in 2022.
“I had that idea 30 years ago,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “I've been knocked down every year I ever brought it up. I stopped bringing it up. Everybody thought I was an idiot. It took 30 years, but I guess I'm maybe right now, huh? The main thing is there's so many more good teams now that it should be an easy move, an easy decision. I like the argument that people say, well, it will dilute the tournament. No, it won't dilute the tournament. It'll get some more teams in and the bad teams will be out after one round.”
Phillips said he is not concerned that expansion would dilute the ACC men’s basketball tournament, arguably the conference’s signature event even in this football-first era.
“The history and the tradition of the tournament will continue to be incredibly strong,” Phillips told WRAL at the ACC Tipoff. “Our programs, to a head coach and to his or her team, talk about openly one of the goals they have is to win an ACC championship. Whether that be regular season or postseason, there’s only a few championships that you can win during the year. So I don’t worry about that.”
Phillips said he is not in favor of eliminating automatic qualifiers for any conference.
Upsets by teams from smaller conferences often provide the most memorable moments of each tournament. No. 15 seed St. Peter’s defeated Kentucky, Murray State and Purdue in its improbable run to the Elite Eight in 2022. The Peacocks were eliminated by North Carolina.
Teams from smaller conferences and one-bid leagues depend on money from the NCAA Tournament to fund their athletic departments.
“I feel pretty confident there aren’t going to be significant changes to the ability to have access to the NCAA basketball championships,” Big South commissioner Kyle Kollander told WRAL in August. “The Big South Conference and every Division I conference is strongly committed to basketball and strongly committed to having access.”
But commissioners at the highest level of college athletics are aware of the money their conference members are putting into sports – and the ramifications of not making the postseason.
NC State was the first team left out of the 64-team NCAA baseball tournament in 2022. Ole Miss, the final team in the field according to the selection committee, won the title. Notre Dame’s men’s lacrosse team was left out of the 16-team field in 2022, creating controversy.
“There are incredible resources being provided for those particular teams, whether it be basketball or baseball, and for them not to have a chance to get into the tournament, that doesn't feel good,” Phillips told WRAL. “It doesn't feel great to us that are at some of the most resourced conferences. So the ability to get more access to championships for more of our teams is certainly something we're talking about.”
