Up next in 10
The NCAA is expanding the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament to 76 teams — but D.A. says this has nothing to do with improving the tournament.
In this full breakdown, he explains the real reasons behind the decision:
Why power conferences are pushing for more at-large bids
How conference realignment created this problem
Why this isn’t the financial windfall people assume
And the biggest factor: the NCAA’s fear of losing control if the power conferences break away
D.A. argues this is a reactionary move — one that fixes a problem fans never asked for, while slowly eroding what made March Madness special in the first place.
This isn’t about growth.
It’s about survival — and the consequences could change the tournament forever.
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0:00
Just let me vent, cuz I've got a lot to
0:02
get off my chest, and some of it may
0:05
make sense, some of it may just be
0:07
fuming. All the things I need to say
0:09
about the ridiculousness of expanding
0:11
the NCAA tournament. Before we get
0:13
there, a reminder to subscribe to the
0:15
channel, click on this button below me
0:17
because we've got fresh video content
0:19
every single day right here on my
0:22
YouTube channel.
0:24
The idea that the NCAA tournament, March
0:27
Madness, needs to be expanded beyond 68
0:30
teams is already a ridiculous concept.
0:32
Because number one,
0:34
the audience is not looking for this.
0:36
There is no fan out there that is
0:38
saying, "You know what would be better?
0:39
A 76-team
0:42
tournament." There We needed to get more
0:45
500 squads or sub-500 records from their
0:49
league play into the NCAA tournament.
0:51
Look at the first four out this year.
0:54
Look at the first eight out this year
0:56
more effectively. And none of those
0:59
teams was America dying to get into the
1:01
NCAA tournament. The second part is this
1:04
is not a media windfall for the NCAA
1:07
tournament. According to many around
1:09
these negotiations, around this
1:11
decision, including a report from Matt
1:13
Norlander from cbssports.com,
1:16
there is not a huge media appetite for a
1:19
big package as well that will make a ton
1:21
of money because it costs a lot of money
1:23
to run another separate first four,
1:26
which is they are going to do. This is a
1:28
second site that they will have to fly,
1:31
travel, you know, accommodate with
1:33
hotels another eight schools to. So,
1:36
there there is not this major media
1:39
windfall that comes with adding eight
1:41
schools to the first four.
1:44
So, it's not audience, it's not the
1:46
fans,
1:47
and it's not media rights. So, why do
1:49
this?
1:50
They're doing it to appease
1:53
the power four conferences. Because as
1:57
those power four conferences have grown
2:00
bloated where the SEC, the Big Ten, the
2:05
ACC have all added schools and the ACC's
2:09
up to 18 ridiculous programs within it.
2:13
The power conference commissioners are
2:16
more and more worried
2:19
that they're
2:20
going to get limited options because
2:24
they have now more teams in their
2:26
league. So, if once upon a time they had
2:28
12 schools and seven got into the
2:31
tournament, well, now they have twice as
2:34
many schools potentially and they're
2:37
only adding one or two at-large bids
2:39
some years. And so, they feel like
2:41
they're getting squeezed and the threat
2:43
that the power four conferences could up
2:46
and leave and form their own NCAA
2:48
tournament, their own March Madness
2:50
tournament is the threat that looms over
2:53
decision like this.
2:54
The NCAA
2:56
does not want to lose the power four cuz
2:58
how would you put on a March Madness
3:00
without them?
3:01
And they're terrified that they've got
3:03
one foot out the door already. So, you
3:04
know what? Let's make them happy.
3:07
And here is the NCAA to acquiesce, to to
3:11
grovel, to apologize at the feet of the
3:13
power conferences. And here's why that
3:16
really stinks.
3:18
Is because none of us
3:21
as college sports fans asked for these
3:25
mega conferences to become more bloated.
3:29
None of us asked for these schools to
3:32
jump from our traditional homes. And I
3:34
know this
3:35
because I'm a Syracuse fan. I'm a
3:37
Syracuse alum.
3:39
And there is nobody that I went to
3:41
school with
3:42
and there's nobody who went to school
3:43
before me and nobody who attended
3:46
Syracuse up until the day they left for
3:48
the ACC that wouldn't prefer today for
3:51
them to be in the Big East. Now, they
3:55
jumped because of football, because
3:59
football rules the roost, and because
4:01
jumping onto a power conference when
4:03
they did a decade ago was a far more
4:08
viable future financially cuz it was a
4:10
safe haven for football, where Big East
4:13
football was in constant turmoil because
4:15
of all the non-football playing schools.
4:18
Well, nobody in West Virginia asked to
4:21
be part of the Big 12. There's no fan
4:24
that was like, "Oh, you know what? I
4:25
would love if our rival was TCU. You
4:28
know what I really want is to play
4:29
K-State every year."
4:31
You look out west. The fact that there's
4:33
no Pac-12
4:35
is utterly insane. The idea that UCLA is
4:39
playing Maryland and Northwestern in
4:42
conference games is beyond stupid. So,
4:46
these were power conferences that
4:49
gobbled up schools and diminished other
4:53
leagues, and really laid waste to the
4:57
traditional football and basketball and
4:59
and collegiate sports landscape, and
5:02
then complained about it. And that's why
5:04
we're doing this. That's why this is so
5:06
bothersome.
5:08
That's why this is so aggravating.
5:11
None of us wanted you to expand. It
5:15
doesn't help us. None of us. Who does it
5:18
help? I mean, my guess is even a team a
5:21
school like Mizzou, who went to the
5:23
all-powerful SEC,
5:25
I worked in Kansas City for a number of
5:27
years. I know what Missouri versus
5:30
Kansas felt like. I know what Mizzou
5:33
versus KU, the hate there is. My guess
5:36
is there's a lot of Mizzou fans that
5:38
still wish that they were back in the
5:39
Big 12 to play KU and K-State and old
5:43
Nebraska and old Oklahoma and all of
5:45
schools that felt far more similar to
5:48
what they're playing in the SEC in
5:50
playing Florida or Alabama or Kentucky.
5:55
But that is where we stand right now.
5:58
And all of it doesn't make sense because
6:01
them, they, the administrators, they
6:04
chose this path. And now they're trying
6:07
to fix
6:09
the mistakes that they made. They're
6:11
trying to fix in their world the cracks
6:15
that they broke in the foundation of
6:18
this great sport and great tournament.
6:21
You know, when they went from 64 to 65
6:25
and 68,
6:26
at least the idea was, well, we have
6:29
more small leagues gobbling up automatic
6:34
bids. So, the math there in some ways
6:38
made sense. We don't want to add smaller
6:43
leagues automatic bids at the expense
6:46
of at-large bids. But this is silliness
6:50
because nobody thinks there should be
6:52
another eight at-large bids. And we're
6:55
not creating more automatic bids. There
6:58
aren't more automatic bid leagues.
7:01
There's just eight at-larges that will
7:03
largely be populated by
7:06
the big power conferences.
7:09
When you look at the schools that would
7:12
have been allowed in
7:14
as at-large bids last season,
7:17
it's laughable. It's absolutely
7:20
laughable what those eight at-larges
7:22
would have looked like.
7:23
Did you want to see this past March
7:26
19 and 15 Oklahoma, first team left out,
7:30
who had a nine-game losing streak in the
7:32
SEC?
7:34
How about Auburn, who was 17 and 16, but
7:37
just seven and 11 in in SEC? Speaking of
7:42
Wake Forest, would have gotten in. Wake
7:44
was 7 and 11 in a down ACC.
7:48
You would have gotten Indiana, who had a
7:50
seven-game losing streak in the Big Ten.
7:54
San Diego State, New Mexico, Tulsa. Are
7:57
these all schools that are deserving to
8:00
be in? Of course not.
8:02
But,
8:03
this is just fulfilling the fear
8:08
of power conferences from not enough
8:11
representation
8:14
in the NCAA tournament, which is
8:16
hogwash. On top of it, these conference
8:19
commissioners, who plucked schools away
8:22
from their traditional conferences, and
8:25
swelled up beyond recognition. And now,
8:29
a conference like the Big Ten, which
8:31
stretches from Seattle, Washington to
8:34
Piscataway, New Jersey. Totally stupid.
8:37
They were done so cuz they were
8:39
manipulated by television executives.
8:42
Fox and ESPN executives, who wanted more
8:47
matchups, more glittering, high-profile
8:50
matchups. And so, the SEC
8:52
grabs Texas and Oklahoma. And the Big
8:55
Ten grabs USC
8:58
and Oregon. And they're hoping that with
9:01
these combinations, not only are they
9:03
satisfied of market size for clearance
9:07
of the Big Ten Network, so they get Los
9:09
Angeles and Seattle, they get Portland,
9:12
Oregon, and they've got New Jersey in
9:14
the New York metro area, and Baltimore
9:17
with Maryland. And the list goes on and
9:19
on and on with all these expansion
9:20
schools that they've added.
9:22
But, also,
9:23
what they've done is they've given the
9:26
the wheel of their of their car
9:30
and allowed the television execs to
9:32
steer it.
9:34
What type of matchups would you like,
9:35
sir?
9:36
What What type of of Saturday matchups
9:39
can we give you for Big Noon? What can
9:42
we give you for SEC College Game Days?
9:45
What can we What can we deliver for you?
9:48
And in doing so, they corrupted the
9:49
entire sport. And so, we are now paying
9:53
We are now [clears throat] paying the
9:54
price for that.
9:56
We are paying the price for the for the
9:59
entire landscape of collegiate sports
10:02
being manipulated for the wrong reasons,
10:06
for television power brokers
10:09
to force their control on the
10:12
commissioners who then force their
10:15
control over the NCAA tournament and
10:19
thus us as the fan is thought of in the
10:22
very very background.
10:24
You know, again, conference realignment
10:26
isn't better for the fan.
10:28
It has ripped away natural rivalries. It
10:31
has ripped away and disintegrated all
10:34
these wonderful decades and perhaps up
10:37
to a century of real sports [snorts]
10:41
DNA.
10:42
Is Maryland Are Maryland Terrapin fans
10:45
better off
10:46
not competing with Tobacco Road?
10:50
Are Syracuse
10:52
and Pitt fans and Boston College fans
10:54
better off
10:56
competing against
10:58
Wake Forest and Georgia Tech?
11:01
Is West Virginia better off competing in
11:04
the Big 12 against now Colorado and
11:07
Arizona State? And on that point, is
11:09
UCLA and USC and Oregon Are they better
11:13
off competing against Wisconsin and
11:16
Iowa? The answer is, of course not.
11:19
But who benefited from it? Television
11:23
and conference commissioners. And
11:25
they're the ones wagging the dog on
11:28
expanding the NCAA tournament, which
11:30
again falls to us to have to
11:33
endure.
11:35
Great.
11:36
I guess now there's another eight
11:39
near 500 or sub 500 conference records
11:43
that'll make the NCAA tournament.
11:46
And in doing so, we just continue to
11:49
bloat the number of undeserving power
11:52
conference mediocrity
11:55
that gets shoved in our face and now
11:57
shoved in our brackets.
12:00
None of it ever made sense. And look,
12:02
college football and basketball
12:04
is broken in an NIL way as well and a
12:07
transfer portal way.
12:09
But at least logically,
12:12
in fairness,
12:14
I can accept that because
12:17
the levers of power
12:20
have flipped at least partially to the
12:22
player when for a century it was only
12:26
the school.
12:27
At least now, if there's this much money
12:31
coming in,
12:32
some of it has to go to the player.
12:35
And if there's that much influence with
12:38
money,
12:39
then the player has influence in where
12:41
he or she plays as well. So, the portal
12:44
has to be open. Now, we need
12:45
restrictions on that. We absolutely need
12:48
some rules and regulations on how all of
12:51
that is regulated. At the same time,
12:54
you could understand how it can't go
12:57
from school here and player here
13:00
forever. It has to even itself out. In
13:03
this case,
13:05
decisions made without the fans' best
13:09
interests at heart
13:11
are constantly eroding
13:14
what has always made college sports
13:17
special.
13:18
And the expansion of the NCAA tournament
13:21
to 76 teams in both the went the men's
13:24
and the women's
13:26
is just painfully ludicrous and pitiful
13:30
to watch. A bunch of really wealthy
13:33
power brokers
13:35
fight cuz they feel
13:37
like they're not represented enough.
13:40
And again,
13:41
worst reason to make a decision is just
13:45
appeasement at the most pathetic level
13:48
for the NCAA.
13:51
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
13:52
Thanks for watching everybody. I'm D.A.
13:54
Damon Amendolara. Appreciate you
13:56
watching and thanks for subscribing as
13:57
well. Hit this button below me because
13:59
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