00:00So you tell me if you think you, you know,
00:02a lot of folks are talking about expanding the tournament.
00:05I know that, you know,
00:06they're talking about expanding the college football playoff,
00:09but the 68 teams right now, I mean, is it more, do you,
00:13are you more in favor of expanding the 68 or how about this?
00:17Expanding the plan?
00:19What would be something,
00:20or maybe you're debating both on how you would go about expanding the
00:24tournament, or maybe you're not.
00:25And you feel comfortable where you are right now.
00:29Well, it's really the committees,
00:30the basketball committees that, you know,
00:32are taking this study and this consideration of expanding the tournaments.
00:36You know, it would be inclusive of both really.
00:39If you expand the tournaments,
00:40it really expands the opening round of the tournaments.
00:43You know, it would be very modest in nature, if at all.
00:46This is not going to be widespread expansion.
00:49The tournaments have been,
00:51the men's tournament's been at 68 now for 15 years.
00:55So, you know,
00:56there's a lot of schools that have invested an enormous amount of money in
00:59basketball,
00:59and there's more depth and parity in the game than there has been previously.
01:04It feels right to be considering it,
01:06whether or not that results in actual expansion or not is still to be
01:08determined and shouldn't be taken as a fate of complete.
01:12But it's, you know,
01:13as you've seen other organizations,
01:15as you know,
01:16Dan,
01:16that have expanded their playoffs,
01:18it feels right to at least be going through the study of it.
01:21And we'll make a decision.
01:23I think the committees will sometime this spring,
01:25one way or the other.
01:27You tell me,
01:29because there's a lot of debate now on conference tournaments,
01:32Dan,
01:33do you still think there's a place for those?
01:35And do you think like an SEC championship,
01:38a big 10 championship,
01:39you know,
01:40because again,
01:42you're starting to look at those.
01:43Sometimes they seem obsolete when you're talking about making it to the
01:47NCAA tournament.
01:48I mean,
01:48where,
01:49what's your position on that?
01:50Are you still a favor of playing these conference basketball tournaments?
01:55I very much am,
01:56Dan.
01:56Yeah.
01:57I mean,
01:57maybe it's old school,
01:58but I,
01:58but I,
01:59I do believe there's great value.
02:00First of all,
02:01they're great moneymakers for the conferences.
02:03You know,
02:04I mean,
02:04in this day and age,
02:05that's,
02:06that's important.
02:07The other thing is,
02:08you know,
02:08that as great as the NCAA tournaments are only one team wins the
02:12championship,
02:12only four teams get to the final four.
02:15That means there's a whole lot of teams that,
02:16you know,
02:17fall short of their goal.
02:18And,
02:19but with a tournament,
02:20you always have the opportunity to be the champion of your league.
02:23Purdue is a really good example of that this year.
02:25You know,
02:26Purdue certainly had national champion aspirations,
02:28aspirations to get back to the final four.
02:30That didn't happen this year,
02:32but they're the big 10 champions.
02:34And for those guys that were together for four years,
02:36you know,
02:36who beat Michigan in the big 10 championship game,
02:39that's a big deal.
02:40Something that they'll always remember and something that they should be
02:42very proud of.
02:43So I very much am in favor of it.
02:45You know,
02:46I do think that we get talk sometimes about smaller conferences,
02:50mid and low majors.
02:52When they have upsets,
02:54those champions that go into the NCAA tournament field,
02:56it's great storytelling,
02:57but sometimes you're not having the best team in your league represent your
03:02league in the tournament.
03:03And you know,
03:04that's always a conference decision as to whether they designate their regular
03:08season champion or their conference tournament champion to be their AQ.
03:12You can make the case that some conferences should consider making the
03:15regular season champion,
03:16be their automatic qualifier for the NCAA tournament,
03:18because they may have better chances to advance than they do for an upset
03:22winner during their conference tournament.
03:24How do you balance this,
03:25Dan?
03:26When,
03:26you know,
03:27I was talking to Stu Jackson from the WCC last week.
03:30How do you balance power conference versus mid major?
03:34You know,
03:36college football went through that a little bit with Tulane and James
03:39Madison,
03:40you know,
03:40because for a guy like me that went to the university of Miami,
03:43I look at those two guys and go,
03:44wait a minute,
03:45that's a different metric on how you're looking at those guys.
03:49Should the pie be open to everyone?
03:51I do.
03:52I do think so,
03:53but there's gotta be as the same set of standards.
03:56Don't you think on how you bring people?
03:58Cause you're looking for the best basketball.
04:01How do you gauge that?
04:03How do you balance that out between a mid major and a power conference when
04:07you're selecting teams?
04:10Yeah,
04:10it's hard,
04:11Dan,
04:12especially when you get down to the end of the selection process and you're
04:14comparing teams from power conferences to teams from mid majors that
04:18don't have the scheduling and game opportunities that have the power
04:22conferences have.
04:23So you're really comparing very different schedules.
04:26Miami of Ohio may have been the most extreme example of that this year,
04:31but you know,
04:32their regular season performance going undefeated was historic.
04:36So yeah,
04:37that's,
04:37that's always a challenge and increasingly more so because those scheduling
04:41opportunities are not as rich as it used to be when the MTEs were providing
04:45those opportunities.
04:46But I think access is still what makes the tournament so special.
04:49The automatic qualifiers are the first and foremost point of access because
04:53every conference gets one team in the field.
04:55And then for those that don't win their conference championship,
04:58you know,
04:58of trying to find ways to evaluate those teams in a fair way against power
05:01conference teams is,
05:03is the,
05:03is the work of the committee that's not,
05:05not easy.
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