UConn coach Dan Hurley warns NCAA Tournament committee of expansion consequences

Dan Hurley has made a habit of getting UConn Basketball into the NCAA Tournament, winning two championships in the last three seasons. Now, there could be a change coming to March Madness. There is a push to expand the NCAA Tournament to 76 teams.

Now, Hurley is sending a warning about changing the tournament, according to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports.

“What I think makes the tournament special is the qualification for it,” Hurley said. “You don’t want the regular season to be rendered meaningless and to take away from November, December, January, February. The qualification process makes the regular season intense and pressure-packed. It should be a privilege to play in the tournament, not a right, and obviously if it expands too much and you don’t have to have a real good season to make it, that would take away from the tournament. Does it get too big?”

Most likely, Hurley and UConn would not be affected by the change as a team. Currently, the bottom-four automatic qualifiers and bottom-four at-large teams compete in four play-in games over two days. That would be expanded to 12 play-in games with a 76-team tournament. UConn under Hurley has not been in the situations they would play in those 12 games.

“I love watching 1/16 games, 8/9 games, Dayton games. But I also love the fact that when it was 64, it was really hard to get in,” Hurley said. “You want it to be hard to get in. My biggest thing, too, is, you still have to win six games, right?”

Adding another game would make it seven games to win it all for a team playing in those play-in games. Teams in the First Four, which began in 2011, have seen some nominal success. VCU made a run to the Final Four in 2011, while UCLA did the same in 2021. The expansion could see more deep runs from teams that play in the play-in games, but could also see more bubble teams flaming out early, which has been more of the norm.

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