Can everybody just stop asking college basketball coaches if they support the possible expansion of the NCAA Tournament to 96 teams?
It’s not about having a larger number of better teams (argued by Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim), or equity with other sports where more teams make the postseason (argued by Villanova’s Jay Wright) or even that the regular season isn’t valued enough (argued by Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski).
Those perspectives serve only as a distraction from the bottom line: More spots mean fewer coaches can be fired for not making the tournament.
The untouchable Coach K’s of the world aren’t under that kind of pressure — certainly Boeheim wasn’t going anywhere after the Orange deservingly missed the NCAAs in 2007 and 2008. But the coach of a lesser program might not survive that kind of downturn, and that’s exactly what the leading members of the coaching fraternity all recognize.
Whether they want to admit it or not, supporting a bigger NCAA Tournament is nothing more than an act of self-preservation.
