INDIANAPOLIS – NCAA President Charlie Baker reiterated Thursday his desire to see his men’s and women’s basketball tournaments expand, though he admitted the timeline for such a move remains unclear.
Speaking with reporters during a Q&A session ahead of the NCAA’s annual mock selection process, Baker again threw his support firmly behind the idea of expanding the tournament field, which has been at 68 teams on the men’s side since 2011 and on the women’s side since 2022.
“We’re still talking to the various players in this one,” Baker said. “I would like to see it expand.”
Baker did not commit to a targeted field size, though a number in the 70s — in particular, 76 — has long been mentioned.
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There remain a number of potential hold-ups, including logistical and seeding issues. Baker did underscore he was not concerned about added costs to the NCAA, which pays not just for the tournament itself but also teams’ participation, including travel and accommodations.
More obstructive might be what Baker termed corporate conversations among the association’s partners.
Baker did not clarify said concerns, only raising them briefly, but the implication was straightforward enough.
CBS, for example, only six months ago saw its parent company, Paramount Global, complete an $8 billion merger with Skydance Media.
More fundamentally, Baker’s point was any potential tournament expansion would not happen in a vacuum, and is therefore not solely the concern of the NCAA. Its various corporate and broadcast partners would need to be heavily involved, to ensure new bracketing structures, host-site needs, TV demands and additional costs could all be managed.
Still, he reiterated an earnest ambition to see the tournament expand, citing his desire to in equal measure create more opportunities for bubble teams, and also protect automatic qualifiers from the long-term threat of revenue-driven expansion crowding them out.
Baker could not — or perhaps more pointedly, would not — commit to a target date for such a move. But he kept the weight of his office firmly behind the possibility.
“I would like,” Baker reiterated, “to expand the tournament.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NCAA tournament expansion still on Charlie Becker’s mind
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