It’s time to expand the NCAA tourney

One of my favorite sports debates lately is the size of the NCAA Division I basketball tournaments, which now stand at 68 men’s and women’s teams. That’s too few.

Kenpom.com lists 362 men’s D-I teams this season, so just 18.8% make the field. I’d like to see that 68 climb to 72 or 76, and I subscribe to respected basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla’s thinking on this: Let’s spread around the preliminary-round games, now held for men only at University of Dayton Arena, and have only at-large teams — perhaps the last 16 selected — compete in them. Let’s give every conference tournament champion a spot in the round of 64 as a reward.

I’m fond of state college basketball history, so I’ll cite an area tournament as an example of why that expansion would help.

In 1982, James Madison lost 58-57 in a conference tournament final to Old Dominion at Scope to fall to 23-5. Coach Lou Campanelli’s Dukes still got in the 48-team field at large (probably barely) as a No. 9 regional seed, then beat No. 8 seed Ohio State 55-48 to advance.

Top-seeded North Carolina, with legends Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Sam Perkins, edged JMU 52-50 in the round of 32 before going on to turn back Patrick Ewing, Sleepy Floyd and Georgetown in the championship game to gain a spot in the pantheon of the greatest teams of all time.

Contrast that with the current Dukes. They easily could have lost to 11th-seeded Texas State in a Sun Belt semifinal. That would’ve left them at 29-4, far better than that 23-5 mark of 42 years ago, but their No. 12 NCAA seed provides convincing evidence that they would have missed the now-68team field.

It took some luck for JMU, even with by far the best men’s hoops record in school history, to gain its shot at Wisconsin. Fortunately for the Dukes, they took full advantage and will be in the national spotlight against the Duke Blue Devils.

I’ll also cite three teams from our state that reached the Final Four — 1984 UVA, 2006 George Mason and 2011 VCU. Those semifinalists didn’t have that much in common except that I didn’t expect to hear their names called on Selection Sunday. All three of those teams gave their fans some incredible memories, just as JMU has done this season.

Once you’re in, anything can happen. The more fan bases are engaged, the higher the interest.