The Conundrum of NCAA Tournament Expansion

With the unfortunate conclusion of one NCAA basketball tournament, questions about next year’s and the preceding years’ tournaments have arisen—namely, the potential expansion of the tournament from its current format of 65 invitees to a possible 96. As Crimson staff writer Jake I. Fisher argues in his column Choosy Moms Choose JIF, this 31-team expansion may offer the opportunity for more mid-level, underrated, or undiscovered teams—such as 2010 runner-up Butler, Sweet Sixteen Cinderella Cornell, or, dare we say it, Harvard—to reach the big dance.

For the Crimson, expansion could indeed provide the chance for a talented squad, akin to this season’s team under the leadership of co-captain Jeremy Lin, to garner an invitation to the tournament. Although a title may be a stretch at this point, Harvard, like conference rival Cornell this season, would earn valuable experience in a post-season tournament, respect from the basketball community, and the opportunity to prove its merit as a program.

However, a more important question is whether or not the expansion will prove beneficial to lesser-known teams such as Harvard or if it will only be focused on bringing more attention and revenue to the power conferences. Rather than providing additional room for the Ivy League or the West Coast Conference, expansion might instead give the Big East or the ACC extra invitations.

One can only hope that if the expansion does come to fruition it will be for the promotion of underdog teams in underrepresented conferences rather than for the Goliath’s of the basketball arena.