Big Ten chief says league ‘positive’ about expanding NCAA hoops tourneys

Big Ten Conference Commissioner Tony Petitti joined a chorus of major conference leaders suggesting the NCAA basketball tournaments be expanded beyond the current 68 teams.

“I think there are some positive feelings towards expansion in our league,” Petitti said Thursday at Big Ten Media Day.

The Indianapolis-based NCAA presented a plan to Division I conference commissioners that would expand the lucrative men’s and women’s basketball tournaments by four or eight teams alongside an option to leave each field at 68, according to a person familiar with the details told The Associated Press in June.

The SEC’s Greg Sankey, ACC’s Jim Phillips and Brett Yormark have all at least floated the idea of adding teams to the tournament.

“I think also the detail of how the seeding would work,” Petitti said. “I just need to hear more about how that would work depending on how many teams they had, what the seeding looks like, what the first two days look like, because it’s just not as simple as saying add more teams. I think it has an impact on actually how you structure those first couple of days and what types of changes they would be considering or not.”

The men’s tournament went from 64 to 68 teams in 2011. The women matched that in 2022.

Expansion is largely backed by larger conferences. Smaller leagues don’t want to lose automatic bids that come with winning conference tournaments or constantly be relegated to play-in games.

Not expanding

Petitti said the Big Ten has no plans to add more schools.

The league went from 14 to 18 members this year with UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington jumping from the Pac-12. Having teams from coast to coast and across several time zones presents enough challenges for now.

“There’s just no discussions about it at all,” Petitti said. “I think we feel really good about where we are.”