NCAA considers three plans for larger men’s basketball tourney

Associated Press

As commissioner of the Northeast Conference, Noreen Morris has a vested interest in the men’s basketball tournament’s new format. Twice in the last five seasons, a school from her league was sent to the so-called play-in game, and with the field expanding to 68 teams, three more games will be added to that preliminary round.

For conferences like the NEC, that’s cause for some concern.

“I think if you find yourself in that game every year, it becomes a bit of a stigma and it can be used in negative recruiting and just an overall branding problem for our conference,” Morris said. “You don’t want the same conferences in those opening rounds every year, especially when we don’t know what it will look and feel like.”

Luckily for Morris, she isn’t alone. Last week, the Division I men’s basketball committee met to go over various options for the four opening-round games that will take place before the round of 64, and members said they are receptive to concerns that the same leagues would be penciled in for those slots year after year.

“Being stigmatized ... is probably not the best thing for the tournament or those conferences,” said Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith, who is on the committee.

The NCAA has approved a 68-team format for the men’s tournament, beginning next March, and there are three basic plans under consideration for the opening games.

One would slot the bottom eight teams in the tournament into the opening round and have them play for the right to move on to the round of 64 — an expanded version of the current format. Another option would put the last eight at-large teams to make the field into the play-in games. There’s also talk of a hybrid plan that could include both at-large teams and automatic qualifiers.