Report: Greg Sankey pitches plan to dramatically change NCAA Tournament, drawing ire

The majority of the college realignment conversation has followed the narrative of what it means for college football. What it means for college basketball and other sports, though, remains to be seen as well. The biggest ramification from that would fall on what it means for the NCAA Tournament. According to The Stadium’s Jeff Goodman, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey wants it to look completely different.

Goodman shared new information on a recent episode of ‘The Field of 68‘. His report comes from members of the D1 Council that Sankey had met with. They say Sankey’s future vision of the NCAA Tournament could remove the chances for Cinderella teams altogether.

“Honestly, the only thing I care about ultimately is that the tournament doesn’t change. Here’s something I’ll tell you guys. I haven’t said this to anybody yet. Greg Sankey, who runs the transformation committee and is now the SEC commissioner, spoke to the D1 council a few weeks ago,” said Goodman. “A couple of people from the D1 council called me and said Sankey kind of talked down to us a little bit and made it look like the NCAA Tournament may not look like the NCAA Tournament in a couple years, meaning the little guys might not be involved anymore.”

There evidently wasn’t consensus on the report as other members told Goodman this wasn’t the case. However, the goal of conference realignments has been power on college sports’ biggest stages. Power 5 schools have always equally dominated CFP and NCAA Tournament bids. Eliminating the Cinderella schools altogether would, in turn, guarantee the super conferences even more bids. The only problem, though, is it removes a foundational piece of what makes March Madness as special as it is.

“I called a couple more guys on the committee who said (they) think they heard it wrong,” Goodman said. “All I’m saying is don’t be surprised if there’s a push from Greg Sankey and some of the big boys to not include the usual and that would be awful. That would be the worst thing to me for college basketball.”

A power grab like this would cause even more backlash moving forward. The NCAA Tournament is one of the most beloved institutions in sports. Changing the dynamic of it at the expense of mid-majors no longer stealing the show likely isn’t what fans would have in mind for it. Goodman says he understands the reality of where we are headed in college sports. While there’s zero concern about the new landscape, he just simply wishes to see Sankey and the powers that be leave March Madness alone.

“UCLA and USC can go to whatever conference they want. There’s ultimately going to be two, three mega conferences. We know that. Just don’t F with the NCAA Tournament. Period.”