Mikeyshooter said:

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Everyone wanted to pay the players so these are the types of consequences we get. Cant have it both ways.

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Wat

The only reason to expand the tourney is when you start having more and more teams on the bubble challenging to win it. It's actually going the other way. We have zero teams lower than a 3 seed in the final 4. That's the first time since 2009. Last year it was all 1 seeds.

It's why it made sense to expand the CFP to 12 teams or 9% of the field.
Basketball is already at 23%. That's plenty.

I'm confused by the fact that no one understands that in order for schools to be in better position to pay players, they need to increase revenues. That's basically all Trev has talked about since he came to A&M.

More tournament spots = more revenue = pay players

More tournament or playoff spots means more parity and wider spread of money and fewer stacked teams. Not sure why we wouldn't want all those outcomes…

One good aspect of expansion is if they get rid having a play-in game on the 11 line. That's freaking dumb.

Put the top 256 schools in a 7-round tournament.

Would still be shorter than the NBA playoffs.

At this point one of the big conferences will have all its teams make it in…

The Collective said:

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Expansion would have robbed me of the opportunity to see Steven Pearl with the NIT champ net tied into his cap.

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The 69th best team in the nation!

Unexciting bump, but it's here.

Sources: The NCAA has initiated the final steps to expand the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments to 76 teams. The expansion is on track to be formalized in the upcoming weeks, with mid-May as the target. The 76-team tournaments begin next year. https://t.co/2ZGUjZR0uJ

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) April 28, 2026

best 16 loss team in nation

It's happening. This article outlines the format. The opening games will expand games to a second site in addition to Dayton.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/48621117/sources-ncaa-basketball-tournaments-set-move-76-teams

Mikesyracuse1

Mikeyshooter said:

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I'm confused by the fact that no one understands that in order for schools to be in better position to pay players, they need to increase revenues. That's basically all Trev has talked about since he came to A&M.

More tournament spots = more revenue = pay players

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I think a layer that goes along with this that I've seen some people, but not enough, talk about is that if you're asking schools to invest $10M dollars into a basketball roster, more teams need to feel like they have a chance to make the postseason with even a modest commitment to NIL.

This is one of the same reasons that the college football playoff is going to expand.

If you're, say, Mississippi State, looking at the college football playoff, what's even the point of trying?