ACC commissioner makes very unpopular suggestion
Oct 12, 2022; Charlotte, North Carolina, US; ACC commissioner James Phillips addresses the media during the ACC Men s Basketball Tip-Off in Charlotte, NC. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
The power brokers in the college football world are working on expanding the field for the College Football Playoff. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips is hoping to have expansion for another NCAA postseason event.
Phillips spoke at an ACC basketball tip-off event and said he wants to expand the NCAA Tournament for basketball.
Phillips recognizes that the NCAA Tournament is already extremely popular and called it a “crown jewel.” He does not want to mess with the automatic qualifier aspect of the Big Dance. However, Phillips wants to expand the field for at-large berths.
“I’m not interested in reducing the AQs. I’m just not. But I’m also committed to making sure those that deserve to get into a tournament should,” Phillips said. “You also have a group that at the highest level is clamoring for more access for their teams. That just leads itself to discussion of, we need to take a holistic perspective and review of college basketball and the tournament.”
The NCAA Tournament has expanded from 8 to 16 to 22-25 to 25 to 32 to 40 to 48 to 52 to 53 and then to 64. It remained at 64 until 2000, when they decided they needed to have an extra team! But in 2011, they decided 65 teams weren’t enough, so they expanded to the current 68-team field.
If giving the 68th-best team in the country a shot at winning the championship isn’t good enough, maybe giving the 70th-best team a chance will do it! And if that’s not enough, maybe they’ll give the team that finished 12th in the ACC a shot at winning the NCAA championship!
Why stop there? Why not just put every single team in D-I into the NCAA Tournament and make it a 320-team event? Why even bother with a regular season and conferences when they can just advance everyone straight to March Madness?
Phillips may have interest in expanding the field, especially since he represents a strong and deep basketball conference. But most fans have no interest in that.
