An 18 team tournament in men’s college basketball?

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For the ones who get it done. Mike Corsi of the Sporting News is with us here on the Adam Gold Show, and I thought of you when I saw the story. I don't try to remember who tweeted it out or something about the six major basketball commissioners for at least one more year until we have just five, although maybe the Mountain West will become one of the power six in basketball. The six major commissioners got together and have recommended that we expand the NCA tournament. We're not expanding the ACC tournament, as it turns out, which is another topic of discussion altogether. Is there a way to expand the NCAA men's basketball tournament that wouldn't offend you, Mike Corsi?

Offend me? I just think it's bad business. I mean, it's really, when you look at what I do twice a week from basically Christmas to Selection Sunday, I'm not sure which of those two holidays is a bigger one. I can't, like no one who does that would say, Yeah, we need more teams. No one, literally no one who goes through that process every week says, Yeah, we need more teams. So that's the first thing. The second thing is there is a general concern. Among those that level of, uh, of executives that there won't be enough bids for the big time leagues once they all kind of get more merged together than they already are. And I say again, look at what I'm doing twice a week.

And if you don't want to look at mine, look at Joe Linardi's look at Jerry Palms. Look at, uh, Shelby Mass. Look at whoever. I don't care who and see how many mid major conferences or even fringe major conferences like the American and the amount the American and the and the West Coast. Look at how many like the only fringe major conference getting any traction at all is the Mountain West.

The only one and all nearly all the bids in my kind of doing this, uh, projecting it. It has almost inevitably been 10 leagues or 10 to 9 to 10 leagues that get multiple teams this year. It's been as few as seven.

And it's generally around eight because we have it depends on whether Gonzaga is in or not. And they have been in at times, and they have not been in at times, but they're the Atlantic 10 and less date and loses. They're not getting to the American and less Florida Atlantic loses. They're not getting to. And so that's so where do you think those bids are going at him? Well, we know they're all going to the big timer. I thought every everybody who supports this goes, Oh, it will be great. We'll get more. We'll get more mid majors in.

They can give automatic bids. I laugh. I laugh. They actually think that the people who are recommending this because they're selfish and they want more units because that's what it comes down to that. They're going to say, You know what?

The regular season champion from the me act. They should get a bid like no, it's if anything, they're going to take bids away from those leagues. They're going to make them all be in the play in games.

So they into the field. They're not going to do that. They are not going to take the automatic bid away, but they're just going to make them all play these first four. I don't think they're going to do that. They'll, they'll, they'll, they'll be happy to have.

Remember, remember every play in game is a unit. So they'll be happy to have their eighth or ninth or 12th place team or whatever play in that game. They'll be happy that it's an extra unit. Uh, so they're fine with that. They don't need to be the 12 seed and then lose in the first round or whatever. They're happy to have them play in Dayton for that extra check.

It's but it's it's but it's really just about sort of placating. Uh, the the various member schools who now are concerned if I'm in a 18 team league or a 20 team figure, whatever. What is my shot getting in?

And the reality is, I believe and I could be proven wrong. Your shot is about the same as it's always been. Field a good enough team and you'll probably get it. Now, if what I'm, what I would say is give it a year and if I'm wrong, then change it. If all of a sudden you can't put enough respectable looking teams onto the floor because you now have 18 teams or however many.

Or I shouldn't say respectable teams on the floor, but respectable teams in the standings or on the Ken Palm chart or whatever. And you don't get enough bits then. Okay, I'm fine. Do what you got to do.

But don't do it because you think it's going to be bad. No, I think they're going to do it because they think they're making more money and I don't know how this is going to translate in the offices at Paramount or with this new endeavor between ESPN, Fox and Warner Brothers Discovery. And they, you know, one of those three is a stakeholder in the men's basketball tournament and the other has the entirety of the women's basketball tournament. I don't know how it's going to, how it's going to work, but I think ultimately there's a reason they said, oh, we could have as many as 90. I mean, I don't, I think when they expand, they're going to expand a lot. When they talk about that, they're basically talking about burning down the entire sport. That's what they're saying.

Do we think they care? It's worth money, Adam. So why would you like, okay, I live in a very nice house, right? Would I just go ahead and light a match and burn it down with no insurance?

And no, I love my house. Why would I do that? That's what they're talking about doing. They talked about this in 2010.

Right. And they nearly did it. And the reasoning back then was different. Because at that point it CBS's contract was coming up. CBS was not interested in spending the level of money. It was around $750 million ballpark, maybe 700, but it's in that category. And they weren't interested on their own spending that level of money on continuing to broadcast the entire term. So others out there, including a particularly large network that concentrates entirely on sports, said, we'll do it.

We'll give you the money you want, but we want 96 teams. Right. And it looked like it might go in that direction. But there was it. It was a terrible concept, but at least there was a reason.

Now there's no reason, because now they're getting one point as of next year, I think they're getting $1.1 billion for 68 teams. Without the ones like you who work tirelessly to keep things running, everything would suddenly stop. Hospitals, factories, schools and power plants.

They all depend on you. No matter the weather, emergency or time of day, you're the ones who get it done. Ed Granger, we're here for you with professional-grade industrial supplies. Count on real-time product availability and fast delivery.

Call clickgranger.com or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. At no point has Turner or CBS said we need more games and more teams. They've not said that. As a matter of fact, they're delighted at this stage to be paying $1.1 billion because Mark Emmert re-upped in 2016. Instead of putting it on the market, they're getting less than everybody in the television believes it's worth.

I'm not saying they wouldn't take more games, but they're not asking for it because they know it's already a bargain. They also know that this tournament, as it's constructed now, is one of the great television properties in America. It's better than Dancing with the Stars because for three weeks... Is Dancing with the Stars still a thing?

Yes, I think it is. I meant to go for America's Got Talent, but Dancing with the Stars came up. But what it does is it takes a sport that is very popular. Not NFL popular, but very popular. And it becomes exponentially more popular. There's no other sporting event in this country that takes a very solid, reliable audience and turns it into a national phenomenon. The NFL is already a national phenomenon and then on Super Bowl Sunday it becomes a national obsession.

But we have a very solid... When Duke and Carolina play and they're both really good, you can count on four million. That's a huge audience for college basketball. You throw a good NCAA tournament second round game out there and you're getting like 12.

So it's a huge difference. And then you get to the final four and now you're talking in the 20 plus range. To mess that up by going to 96 or something like that would be just the worst business decision that college athletics has ever made. Going to 72 is just going to be bad for business because a regular season that already is demeaned by too many in our business as irrelevant or unnecessary or whatever. Or a lot of people in our business who are football firsters say, I don't start until after Christmas because you're in our way. Nothing's in their way. Everybody has to get out of football's way. But if you go to 72, you're diminishing a regular season that already has that against it.

So why would you do that? Mike Decorci is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. I think if you I think you can expand in small numbers to make it to make each bracket look the same. Right now, we have four first four games. If you doubled that number, then, you know, having eight, you could put two in each bracket. I think that would be that would be acceptable. That would that would be acceptable.

I think what? But I don't think that would diminish the second round match up or the sweet 16. I don't that would. Here's what it would diminish, Adam. It would diminish the the drive to get into the tournament. And that's what I'm talking. Oh, yeah. That those if if you if you can't make 72, you can't ball at all.

I mean, you don't have any business. But that's like 68 is still there's a pressure point. Like there are good teams, capable teams that are going to be that are going to be excluded at 68. Not if you play in the Big 12, Mike.

None of those teams are going to miss the tournament. I've been told I've been told the greatest league we've ever seen. It's we that's another conversation for another day. I haven't done all the research on that yet, but I get it. I've done too much. You're going. Yeah, I know where you're going and you're not wrong.

But my point is that that doing what I do, I know like what's on the other side of that line. And it's not you know, it's not pretty. If you get left out at 68, there's a reason you got left out when we had the conversation in 20, when almost all the bracket analysts in 2022 had Notre Dame in and Texas, saying that take Notre Dame out in Texas A&M in and it turned out to be the opposite. Texas A&M's reason for losing for leaving for being left out was like, well, you lost every single game practically you played in February.

So sorry. And Rutgers the same thing a year ago. Well, after my wife got injured, you could barely score four points. And so there were reasons. And although those of us in this thought they made the wrong choice, we didn't feel terribly about the teams that were left out. We felt bad that we didn't get 68 out of 68, right?

Well, again, I think I think Joe and to an extent, Jerry will be very happy if the entirety of the Big 12 gets in the game, the system. I give him credit for game in the system. Play nobody outside of your league beat up on, you know, teams in the 200 300 range.

Get fat records and then take those power rankings into your league. And every game you play as a quad one or a quad two game. So you build up your your resume, which is absolutely like the reason I mentioned donuts yesterday was the empty calories from from there. I love donuts. But like, first of all, you can't eat just one.

You got to eat three and then your entire caloric intake for the day is taken care of. It's a complete waste. And that's basically what the Big 12 schedules are.

You know, we don't have time here, but the ACC announced that they're going to stay 20 conference games. And I can't think of anything dumber than that because no, no, no, no, no. No, that's the right move.

No, it is not the right. You're taking a win and a loss every single time you play play more games outside the league. Where you're wrong, Adam.

Here's where you're wrong. The Big 10 has played 20 conference games for at least three years, maybe four. And they've been racking up bids every year. And it hasn't just been on the backs of of the Southland Conference. I mean, they have legitimately earned the most of those, if not all of those bids, if you look back at what they did. So there are ways to get many bids by playing outside of conference and achieving. I do think that you have a point about the Big 12 this year.

There is there is something amiss there. They figured out the math. But it's not just the net that that happened with. I mean, it's all the predictive metrics. I agree. It's not just the net, but they use the net to group the teams. Right.

They use the net to compile quad one and quad two records. You know, Gary Parrish. I love Gary. Gary came on a couple of weeks ago and he talked about we were talking about these two teams. He goes, you know, Iowa State's they've got, you know, they're five and whatever in quad one games. I'm like, yeah, but let's look at him.

Let's look at the quad. We can't. And I have no faith in the committee after football. So it's a different committee. I know it's a different committee, but it's the same type of people. It's the same type of people, but there's more people watching and there's more people who know what goes on in that in that committee room.

And here's the other thing. Danny Gavin and David Warlock are in that room. There was no Danny Gavin or David Warlock in the football room.

That that's that that is a that and that is a significant difference. That is very, very true, because we know it was in the football room. Mike DeCorcy of the Sporting News, my friend at TSN. Mike on Twitter. Thanks, man. I'll talk to you again. You bet, Adam.

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