UConn HC Dan Hurley Says Expanding NCAA Tournament Would Devalue Regular Season

Increasing the number of teams invited to March Madness is not the way to fix the NCAA tournament's flaws, according to University of Connecticut men's basketball head coach Dan Hurley on Sunday.

NCAA President Charlie Baker said Saturday the NCAA's Division I Transformation Committee could officially recommend tournament expansion as soon as this summer.

Ahead of the Huskies' championship game against the San Diego State Aztecs on Monday, Hurley told ESPN's Myron Medcalf that expanding the NCAA tournament field risks "devaluing the regular season."

"For me, I think it's great the way it is," said Hurley. "I feel like devaluing the regular season, I think, potentially hurts the regular season and what it means... I don't think expanding it is a good idea. And we only got five teams in the Big East, so it's not like we got nine."

The Huskies head coach added, "I think it's a privilege to play in this tournament, not a right."

Although Hurley said he likes the current format for putting teams under pressure to win games, and rewarding them even for nonconference wins, he said it also favors teams from major conferences.

Before taking over in Connecticut in 2018, Hurley coached the Atlantic 10 Conference's Rhode Island Rams for six seasons. He told reporters the NCAA should ensure mid-majors are not forced out of the tournament field by brand-name schools that "game the numbers."

"There's probably mid-major programs a lot of times that are more deserving of like a 10th-place team in a power conference that has figured out how to kind of just game the numbers," Hurley said. "I'll say that. I see that on Selection Sunday sometimes, and I cringe at that."

The men's tournament last changed size in 2011, when the field expanded from 64 to 68 teams. The women's tournament expanded to the same number in 2022.

The recommendation proposed by the Transformation Committee encouraged the NCAA to include "25 percent of active Division I members in good standing," which would increase both fields to approximately 90 teams.

Baker, who took the helm of the NCAA on March 1, said he will leave it up to the committee to decide what to recommend.