By CHARLIE PARENT
Ken Pomeroy, the analytics guru famed for his KenPom rankings, said if the NCAA Tournament were to expand in the next “5-10 years,” it would be best if expanded to 80 teams.
The NCAA recently called for the expansion of 90+ teams back in January, though Pomeroy fears that 96 teams would water the product down.
“64 teams is perfect from a format standpoint,” he said at the Madison Area Sports Commission Morning Sports Report. “It’s neat to have everyone playing the same number of games and the first week there’s two games and the second there’s two games, and the last week you have the Final Four.”
“I have a proponent of expanding to 80,” Pomeroy continued. “I think 96 would water it down too much, but if you expand it to 80 all the lower at-large teams would play in the first round and the next round all the automatic bids would get byes with some at-larges getting a buy as well to the Round of 64.”
“That would still incentivize the regular season even more. I think if you’re going to expand the tournament,” he said. “I hope they do it responsibly and don’t just give the 10th placed team from the Big 10 a bye to the Round of 64, hopefully you incentivize the regular season in some and I think if you do that it’ll still make the event crazy.”
Pomeroy currently has Houston as his No. 1 team headed into conference championship play with UCLA, Alabama, Connecticut, and Tennessee rounding out the top-five.
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