No plans to tweak NCAA’s March Madness tournament

PHOENIX — The NCAA basketball tournament has gone through some massive changes in recent years, the biggest being an expansion to 68 teams.

Don’t expect any more big changes anytime soon.

Though there are annual quibbles about which teams should make the field, the format for one of the biggest spectacles in sports works and the NCAA has no interest in messing with it.

“Over the past many, many decades, the core is really solid, so it’s what can we do to enhance it without taking away from that core,” Mark Hollis, chair of the NCAA’s Division I men’s basketball committee, said Monday.

“Because of the intricacies of the NCAA Tournament, I would challenge that’s something you wouldn’t want to touch. We live in a society where we want to change, improve everything, but the core of it is pretty good.”

The NCAA Tournament field expanded from 53 to 64 teams in 1985, a format that remained in place until a play-in game was added in 2001 and expanded the bracket to 65 teams.

A big change came in 2011, when the NCAA Tournament expanded the field to 68 teams, with the last four to get into the tournament playing in the First Four.

The larger field has helped increase the chances for upsets, which have come fast and furious over the past several seasons.

The audience has expanded with the field; the 2015 NCAA Tournament was the most-watched in 22 years, averaging 11.3 million viewers.

The NCAA has discussed moving the First Four from Dayton, Ohio, but since becoming the site in 2011, Dayton has been a perfect host. The teams are selected on Sunday and the games are Tuesday night, but the city is always ready and the games usually sell out despite the short turnaround.