The potential for another round of NCAA Tournament expansion created feverish debate among college basketball fans and media in recent years, and the expectation is that soon the field will get expanded from 68 to 76.
Many believe adding more teams waters down the NCAA Tournament and takes away from the importance of the regular season, but St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said he doesn’t believe that’s the case. Pitino sat down with CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander Tuesday during Big East media days and explained why he doesn’t get the arguments against expanding to 76, as he argues it would only help college basketball.
“I think it doesn’t hurt, it can only help,” Pitino says. “I think any time you get more teams, more excitement, more TV coverage, more things to speak about, more athletes participating — it can only be a good thing. For people who say, ‘oh no, we have to keep it,’ I was around when it was I think 24 or 32, whatever it was back then. So the more in this situation, you’re talking about eight games, it’s great for — I remember my first year, we were locked out. I felt we deserved to be there. We played UConn to the closest game, 95-90 in the Garden. So it doesn’t hurt anything, it only helps. More excitement, more TV coverage. What bad can come from it?”
Norlander pointed out the concerns that expansion makes the regular season less valuable, but Pitino doesn’t think a small expansion would do that — and noted that he feels the lack of enthusiasm for early-season games is already happening.
“I think if it was a substantial number, I would agree with that, but you’re talking about eight games,” Pitino responds. “I look at the opportunities for young athletes — look, it’s the greatest event in college basketball. That’s what we all live for, March Madness. Right now in November, even though we’re playing a great schedule, no one really cares. It’s all about the NFL and college football right now. And then once we get into January, February it becomes basketball.”
On a very broad scale, Pitino is correct that the national conversation until January is about football, but the concern is that you could lessen the excitement for the diehard fans that do still care deeply about early season action. He doesn’t seem too worried about that, believing the more the merrier come March.
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