University of Maine men’s basketball head coach Chris Markwood and women’s basketball associate head coach Courtney England like the NCAA’s decision to expand the men’s and women’s Division I basketball tournaments from 68 to 76 teams this coming season, but they aren’t sure how much it will affect their programs.
Under the old format, there were four First Four games, and the winners moved on to the 64-team tournament field.
With the new format, there will be 12 games involving 24 teams with six games after Selection Sunday.
The men’s opening round games will be held at two sites: in Dayton, Ohio, and another that’s yet to be determined. Dayton has always hosted the First Four.
The women’s games will continue to be played at campus sites.
The teams involved in the opening round will be the 12 lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers on the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee’s list and the 12 lowest-seeded at-large teams.
There will be 64 teams remaining after the opening round games.
“The high-level football championship playoffs and the NCAA basketball tournament are the two most watched college sporting events in the world,” Markwood said. “[The NCAA] can make more money by adding more games. I understand why they are doing it.”
“From the standpoint of money-makers, why not do it?” England said. “It makes no sense not to have more games. They have found a way to make it profitable. It makes sense for everyone involved.”
The tournament expansion will allow the NCAA to provide more than $131 million in new revenue distributions to schools participating in the basketball tournaments over the next six years of the broadcast agreements, according to the NCAA.
The UMaine teams are in America East, which is a mid-major conference. It isn’t considered a strong enough conference for teams to earn at-large berths to the tourney if they don’t win conference tournaments.
Only the America East Tournament champion is guaranteed a spot in the NCAA Tournament as an automatic qualifier.
The exception would be if one of its teams posts a remarkable overall record that includes non-conference wins over highly regarded teams.
The big question is whether mid-majors will benefit from the tournament expansion or if those eight extra spots will go primarily to the teams in the Power Four conferences: the Big 10, the Big 12, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference?
“I hope it creates more opportunities for some of the mid-major teams to get an at-large,” said Markwood. “But a lot of people across the country feel those at-larges are going to go to the Power Four teams that are in the middle of the pack in their leagues. It’s hard to know what the NCAA selection committee is going to do. You hope they give mid-major teams that had great years but slipped up in their conference tournaments a chance to go on and compete in the NCAA Tournament.”
England expects more Power Four conference teams to earn at-large berths because that will provide “more viewers and more money. That is the reality of the situation.”
“But if you’re a mid-major and you get a good enough schedule and win enough games to put yourself on the bubble, it does give you an extra chance to get in beyond just your automatic qualifier,” said England. “Nothing really changes for us. We have to play a hard schedule to put ourselves in the best situation to be successful.”
She said for an America East team to earn an at-large berth, along with having an outstanding conference record, it is important to have Quad One (top 50) and Quad Two (50-100) teams on your non-conference schedule and “to win some of those games.”
She said Richmond is a good example of a mid-major that earned an at-large berth this season from the Atlantic-10 after losing in the conference semifinals to George Mason.
Richmond beat NCAA Tournament teams Green Bay and the University of Rhode Island and lost to top 10 teams Texas and Texas Christian along with NCAA tourney teams Fairfield and Rhode Island. URI is also in the A-10.
UMaine has always had a challenging non-conference schedule to get ready for conference play. They had three non-conference games against eventual NCAA Tournament teams North Carolina State, URI and Fairfield but lost all three.
England noted that with the new format, it would give them a better chance of winning a tournament game if they get in because the opening round features the bottom 12 at-large and bottom 12 automatic-qualifiers.
Under the old format, America East champions wound up bypassing the Opening Round game but then drawing a low seeding (13th-16th) and being matched up against top five seeds in the region for their tournament opener.
This past season, America East titlist Vermont was a 14th seed and wound up getting ousted by third seed Louisville in Louisville.
In UMaine’s last championship season, 2023-24, they wound up as a 15th seed and were thumped by No. 2 seed Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio.
Markwood has heard people say they are watering down the tournament by adding more teams, but he disagrees.
“I don’t think we’re at that point right now. You are still getting 76 elite teams that are the cream of the crop,” Markwood said, noting that there are 361 Division I men’s programs.
He also said those opening round games at two sites are going to be a “great addition to the tournament.”
“That will be a nice buildup throughout the week heading into the weekend. It’s going to be exciting and fun,” said Markwood.
