The NCAA Tournament’s expansion from 68 to 76 teams is not a popular idea across most of the sports universe. Add Colin Cowherd to the list of those opposed.
The Fox Sports host is one of the more prominent voices to come out against the proposed expansion, which ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported could be made official as early as next week. Cowherd posted a video on social media Sunday making his case, and he was careful to note that he’s not someone who reflexively hates change, since he’s on the record supporting the MLB pitch clock, the NFL extra-point adjustment, and the NBA play-in tournament. But he thinks March Madness is “one of the few things in sports that feels right” and that expanding it is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
“God, do I hate the idea of the NCAA Tournament expanding to 76 teams,” Cowherd said. “Who wants Mastro’s to add McNuggets to the menu? We come for the steak, not the sweet-and-sour sauce.”
“College basketball finally has its footing again,” he continued. “Stars, teams, brands, meaning. And now you’re backpedaling. Adding more games isn’t a bonus; it’s dilution. It’s subtraction by addition. You’re not making the tournament bigger, you’re making it feel smaller.”
Cowherd’s broader point is that college basketball is actually in a good place right now, which makes expansion feel like a strange call. NIL has kept players in school longer, rosters have more continuity, and the games among the top programs are better for it. The problem is that the bottom of the tournament field is already producing blowouts, with the average first-round margin of victory at 17 points this year. Adding weaker teams isn’t going to bring that number down.
“The NIL is concentrating elite talent at the top of college basketball and football,” he said. “So the average margin of victory this year in the first round was 17 points. What is that going to spike to? 27? 37? That’s not drama, that’s a scrimmage. Fewer players are leaving early for the NBA Draft. Roster continuity is better. Teams are older. The product’s improving, especially among the top 15 to 18 teams. And let’s be honest, that’s what America watches. So why are we expanding access to things that people already ignore?”
There have been plenty of deserving teams left out of the NCAA Tournament every year for as long as the bubble has existed, and nobody’s pretending otherwise. But nobody wants to see the field diluted and the magic of March cheapened in the process. Your mileage probably varies on whether an extra play-in round actually does that or just adds a few games nobody remembers by April.
The NCAA appears set on finding out anyway.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.