NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament expansion makes little sense

There is a point in time in which the NCAA Tournament will be too big to handle. That time is drawing ever nearer.

Coaches are meeting this week, breathing in fresh air after dusty smog clogged the sinuses of college basketball this year. Luckily, a spectacular NCAA Tournament diverted attention away from a season of scandal.

What if that NCAA Tournament was just a little bit bigger down the road?

That’s one of the pieces of legislation coaches from the ACC requested this week, according to commissioner John Swofford. The proposal would bump the field up four spots, to a total of 72. The new spots would open up the ability for a second “First Four” to be created. (h/t ESPN)

That’s not the only proposal the coaches came up with. They’re also interested in pushing the three-point line back and resetting the shot clock to just 20 seconds after an offensive rebound.

But expanding the NCAA Tournament is the worst idea of the bunch.

For starters, fans aren’t clamoring for it. There was disgruntlement a few years ago when the field expanded to 64 teams to 68 teams. Expansion diluted the quality of teams in the field (although First Four teams often prove their merit) and brackets became unclean.

Still, people have learned to accept it. It’s no time to change it.

The theory abounds that ACC coaches want to expand the field because the words “NCAA Tournament” guarantee job security at the end of a season. By and large, that’s true – it’s much more common to see a coach ascend to a better position after an NCAA Tournament appearance, rather than bite the employment dust.

But there’s a point when athletic directors will wise up to a coach who makes the First Four each year, only to succumb there in consecutive seasons; they’ll fire that coach as soon as it makes sense to do so.

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So let’s leave the NCAA Tournament alone for a while, please?