Charlie Baker doubts NCAA basketball tournament expansion can happen for 2025-26 season
The Division I basketball committees are scheduled to meet next week, Baker said, and there have been long-running discussions – including at basketball committee meetings two weeks ago – about expanding tournaments to 72 or 76 teams, from the current 68.
Following an appearance at a National Press Club Headliners Breakfast, Baker was asked about doubts that, at this point, that a tournament expansion could occur this season.
'I think that's a reasonable statement,' Baker said in reference to the difficulty of having these changes go into effect for the 2025-26 season.
Asked why, he replied: 'Just logistics. I mean, it's a lot of airplanes in a very short period of time.'
The NCAA arranges travel for tournament teams, and tournament expansion would mean having to move additional teams, presumably in a more compressed timeframe than currently exists. During the event, Baker explained that the NCAA tournament must be played between the end of conference tournaments and finish by the Tuesday before The Masters golf tournament.
While showing respect for the basketball committees' ongoing conversations and review process during the event, Baker – who played basketball at Harvard - also did not hide his feelings about tournament expansion.
Referring to the tournament fields automatically including the 32 conference champions, Baker said: 'I love that. I think it's great -- and I never want that to change. But that means there's only 36 slots left for everybody else. And in many cases there are teams that are among the 50, 60 best teams in the country … I don't buy this argument that none of the teams that get left out on the bubble are good. It's untrue.'
He went on to specifically cite recent examples with the St. John's and Indiana State men's teams being left out of the field and, after recounting each of their seasons and conference tournament play, separately said that each team 'should have been in' and that when teams that are among the top 50 or so in the country are left out, 'I think that sucks.'
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