At Least One Person In Power Doesn’t Love the 96-Team Tournament

SportsBusiness Journal had a report on Monday that the NCAA would have a decision on tourney expansion on April 29. While that decision to expand the field to 96 teams is starting to feel more and more likely, even in the face of ridiculous PR spin, at least one voice of authority has come out pretty strongly against the idea.↵↵ESPN has comments from Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith, who is the incoming NCAA tournament committee chair.↵

↵↵⇥“I don’t have a real perspective of what 96 would look like,” Smith said. “I really don’t and I think most athletic directors and basketball people would say they would prefer it go to 68.”↵⇥↵⇥[...]↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥“The responsibility we have with the association is to deal with whatever we have and make it work,” Smith said. “But the majority would like to see it go from 65 to 68. But I’m not sure that’s realistic.”↵⇥

↵↵↵Smith’s comments are softened by other comments he makes later in the article, talking about how he sees the excitement in doing something different and how rewarding regular season champions could put a greater emphasis on the regular season. Still, for the man who is going to be tasked with leading the tourney committee, this is a relatively strong stance to take in public.↵

↵↵But really, Smith being for or against tournament expansion probably doesn’t mean a lot. He could’ve lit himself on fire on live TV and I’m not sure it would’ve stopped the pursuit of greater profit from the NCAA Tournament’s TV rights.↵

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