Kiss Cinderella goodbye if NCAA Tournament radically reshapes

If some power conference stakeholders get their way, double-digit seeds like NC State may be the only type of Cinderella team in the NCAA Tournament of the future.

Along with the power conferences’ pursuit to expand the 68-team tournament is their not-so-subtle push, both publicly and privately, to review the merits of awarding one-bid conferences with automatic berths.

According to sources familiar with high-level expansion discussions, members of the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee are mindful of both the enormous leverage that power conferences – specifically the SEC and Big Ten – possess and that there is little anyone can do to stand in their way.

If the door shuts on mid-majors from one-bid leagues, then the only remaining underdogs will be pseudo-Cinderella teams from high-major conferences.

Don’t be surprised if watching a power conferences-only March Madness induces this collective reaction from America: Yawn.

Without the threat of the mid-major upset, do you think the tournament would average a record 9 million viewers, as it did Thursday through Saturday?

Making wholesale changes to a treasured three-week event that continues to surge in popularity is, at best, a large gamble and, at worst, bad business.

Concern among mid-major conferences over potentially stripping them of automatic berths has risen throughout this season, reaching a fever pitch when SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey recently told ESPN:

“We are giving away highly competitive opportunities for automatic qualifiers [from smaller leagues], and I think that pressure is going to rise as we have more competitive basketball leagues at the top end because of expansion.”

‘Don’t keep us out’ of NCAA Tournament

Sources familiar with discussions told On3 it is highly likely March Madness will undergo modest expansion – an additional four to 10 teams – but the question is: Will that placate the big boys enough for them to back off their push to keep out the little guy?

“Don’t keep us out,” said Greg Kampe, the 40-year Oakland coach who engineered the stunning upset over third-seeded Kentucky. “We are what makes this tournament – the little guy. Why does everybody love ‘Hoosiers,’ right? Because of the little guy.”

Leave aside how rich it was that Sankey himself watched two double-digit seeds from one-bid leagues – Oakland and Yale – topple teams from the SEC – Kentucky and Auburn, respectively.

Sankey is advocating for what he believes is best for the SEC and other like-minded leagues. What he is missing is what is best for the broader college sports enterprise.

The event’s magic is found in stories like Oakland’s Jack Gohlke, a former Division II player, making seven first-half three-pointers en route to the win over future NBA pros on Kentucky’s roster.

As one college administrator asked, “Would you rather watch the 10th-place SEC team or a top team from a mid-major league?”

“What makes March Madness unique is the Cinderella stories,” said Bucky McMillan, whose Samford team nearly beat Kansas in the first round. “Most people are that team. If you take that out, this ain’t America, right?”