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‘No one listens’ to John Calipari’s March Madness idea. Too bad. They should

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‘No one listens’ to John Calipari’s March Madness idea. Too bad. They should

MIRAMAR BEACH, FL – He’s been David, and he’s been Goliath.

He knows fans remember David more.

They remember Goliath best when he loses to David in March Madness — like when Saint Peter’s toppled John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats.

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“No one remembers the wins (Goliath gets),” Calipari said during an interview with USA TODAY Sports and a few other media outlets at SEC spring meetings. “If you said, ‘Who did we beat in the national championship?’ They would not know. You know what they know? Saint Peter’s beat us. That’s what they know.

“That’s what makes this tournament. Don’t take that away.”

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March Madness: Men’s college basketball national champions since 1960

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(Bob Donnan, Imagn Images)

Don’t take that away, because David and his 3-pointer give March Madness its soul.

It’s here we arrive at why Calipari opposes the recently approved March Madness expansion to a 76-team bracket.

Calipari looks at this from a perspective of, if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. March Madness wasn’t broken. It was beautiful.

But, if you must make an unnecessary expansion from 68 to 76, why couldn’t that expansion uplift power-conference teams and mid-majors in equal proportion? That’s what Calipari would like to see.

Alas, “no one listens to me,” said Calipari, now the coach at Arkansas.

John Calipari: March Madness expansion should uplift Cinderellas, too

I sure wish NCAA Tournament powerbrokers would listen to Calipari as a voice of reason.

Because, he’s right: Cinderella gives March Madness its spirit, even as upsets dwindled the past two seasons in the wake of NIL and transfer free agency.

If anyone listened to Calipari, here’s what they’d hear: Take these eight extra bids created by tournament expansion and split them into two groups:

Four bids go to power-conference teams. Four go to Cinderellas.

“I don’t think that’s how it’s going to operate,” Calipari said, “but that’s what I would say.”

NCAA Tournament expansion will add the dregs of power conferences

In the absence of an idea like the one he’s pushing, Calipari worries these eight bonus bids mostly will go to lower-end teams from power conferences.

Who wants that? Not anyone who truly loves the tournament, and not the guy who accelerated his career by taking UMass to the Final Four.

“I just think half of (the extra spots) should go to the non-Power Five. So, four of them. That would have people in our room saying, ‘Speak for yourself,’” Calipari said. “I get that, but I’ve been at UMass, and I’ve been at Memphis, and I know how hard it is to schedule. You can’t schedule your way in.”

To Calipari’s point, Miami (Ohio) encountered difficulty getting power-conference teams to agree to play the RedHawks last season. They slipped into the First Four as one of the last at-large teams selected.

And, guess what? They beat SMU from the ACC in one of the most compelling games in the history of the First Four.

Mid-majors are good theater. Mid-majors beating Goliath are great theater.

But, will anyone other than Calipari take up for the little guy?

You can bet your basketball SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti, his Big Ten counterpart, won’t throw their weight behind Calipari’s idea. They want these bonus bids going to the dregs of their conferences.

Here’s how to spice up the ‘First 12’

I’d take Calipari’s suggestion a step further. Don’t just split the final eight bids between high-majors and Cinderellas. Make sure to pit those teams against each other in the “First 12.”

Think of it as a miniature Power Conference vs. Mid-major Challenge.

Or, just call it David versus Goliath.

So, Power Four teams won’t schedule the likes of Miami (Ohio) in November? Fine, but you’ll see ‘em in March.

If CBS wants to make the “First 12” a worthwhile product (rather than filler until the real tournament starts on Thursday) that’s how you do it — by creating matchups that involve an underdog like the RedHawks against a power-conference brand, rather than matching up two 17-16 teams from power leagues.

It’s as Calipari said, though. Nobody will listen to him. The power conferences run college sports, and the dregs of those conferences will gobble up most of these bonus bids.

An expansion that could otherwise give us more Cinderella stories will instead mostly admit more access to weak and vulnerable Goliaths, with no David to contend with.

Blake Toppmeyer is a sports columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: John Calipari has March Madness idea you’d love. Sadly, no one listens



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