A major shift is happening in college basketball, as NCAA Tournament expansion was revealed this week. The plan has not been finalized, but it calls for a 76-team tournament and is not expected to encounter much resistance in the approval process. This change is a colossal mistake for the sport, making the regular season a moot point and watering down the NCAA Tournament. The expansion would be a celebration of mediocrity, since power conference teams on the bubble would be the only ones that would benefit. This change triggered a social media exchange that revealed the underlying fight of insatiable greed against the soul of college athletics, a fight that pervades many sports discussions.
Why NCAA Tournament Expansion Is A Mistake
The main reason that tournament expansion is misguided is that it devalues the regular season. In 2025-26, college basketball saw the highest regular season TV ratings since the 2010’s. Part of that can be attributed to programs with large alumni bases (like Duke and Michigan) being elite all season long. In the NIL era, those programs can’t be counted on to draw in viewers every year. Tournament expansions mean that the regular season has low stakes, and the conference championship doesn’t matter since most teams in a power conference are getting a bid to the postseason anyway.
What tournament expansion also does is water down the NCAA Tournament. With the addition of eight at-large bids, the potential exists for teams with losing records to make the first round of the tournament. These teams have no legitimate shot of winning a national championship, and the selection committee will be tasked with rewarding mediocre basketball teams with a tournament bid that they don’t deserve. Participation trophy culture has made its way to college sports, and basketball fans will be the ones paying the price for it.
Power conferences are the primary beneficiaries of NCAA Tournament expansion. Just last year, there was a heated debate about whether Miami (OH) or Auburn should get an at-large bid (the right one got in, by the way). If there are more bids, they are going to go to ACC or Big Ten cellar dwellers before the committee would consider giving multiple at-large bids to a mid-major conference. This is a money-driven change that actively hurts the product, and only the big brands in college basketball will benefit.
This change didn’t come without some drama. ESPN’s Seth Greenberg posted on social media how tournament expansions will be a boon for both power and mid-major conferences, which is facetious at best and a lie at worst. College basketball reporter Jeff Goodman posted that Greenberg only made the NCAA Tournament once during his last 17 seasons at Virginia Tech. It’s not surprising to see someone from Bristol being an impotent mouthpiece for a league, since journalism died at ESPN a long time ago.
This spicy back-and-forth illustrates the current fight going on in college athletics. On one side, there are the people who will carry the water for the power conferences. These leagues won’t stop changing the landscape of the NCAA until they’re the only conferences that are left. On the other hand, people who want college sports to be solvent for the next century have to push back against this widespread greed. The winner of this fight will decide if sports truly can survive selfish ambition.
