Kansas' Bill Self Says 'Consensus' Among Big 12 HCs Would Be to Expand March Madness
Kansas coach Bill Self said on Wednesday that Big 12 head coaches are generally "in favor" of expanding the NCAA Tournament, according to the Lawrence Journal-World's Henry Greenstein.
“There was a little bit that was brought forth, and the consensus among the coaches, even though it was very little, was we’d be in favor of that," Self said from the Big 12's spring meetings in Orlando, per Greenstein.
NCAA leadership has previously discussed expanding the 68-team tournament field to 72 or 76 teams, according to CBS Sports' Matt Norlander.
ESPN's Pete Thamel reported in February that, if the decision was made to expand the tournament, the more likely choice would be to expand both the men's and women's tournaments to include 76 teams.
Thamel wrote that expanding to 76 teams would likely mean adding an additional First Four site outside Dayton, which would likely be located outside the Eastern Time Zone.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has previously expressed his support of potential expansion to 76 teams, which he described in March as the "right number."
If expansion does come, it may not take place until at least 2027. NCAA executive Dan Gavitt told Norlander in February that any decisions about expanding the tournament for 2026 would need to be made by early May.
Gavitt noted that among the complications to expansion are revenue-sharing agreements, which could result in less money going to each school if more programs join the event.
Self has led the Jayhawks to the NCAA Tournament in every eligible season since joining Kansas in 2003. The Big 12 has, meanwhile, sent at least six teams to March Madness in each of the last 11 tournaments, according to the conference.
This spring, Houston, Iowa State, Texas Tech, Arizona, BYU, Kansas and Baylor represented the conference. An expanded field likely would have meant a bid for West Virginia, which was the first program out of the 68-team bracket.
The NCAA Tournament last made a major expansion in 1985, when the field grew to 64 teams. The 2011 addition of the First Four expanded the field to 68.
