Seton Hall may have made tournament last year under this year's 76-team expansion

[Fishjam]

NCAA Tournament expansion: What 2026 March Madness bracket could have looked like with 76 teams

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www.on3.com

 

[PirateBlue08]

yippee now its the everyone gets a participation trophy league, lets just expand to 100.

what happened to this thing, we bend more rules than the catholic church

 

[VegasPJ1]

Woulda, coulda, shoulda, but didn’t! Wait, make that might’ve, maybe, may have, but still didn’t.

 

[HALL85]

Can we hang a banner for this? lol

 

[Fishjam]

Carino has written that making the tournament is no longer required for a coach to keep his job at SH. I don't agree with this but his reasoning is if the school won't fully fund RS/NIL like an average BE team, how can you require a coach to be better than an average BE team?

My question is, does raising the NCAAT to 76 teams now again make it a necessary achievement at Seton Hall or is it acceptable to be a competitive, mid-pack BE team?

 

[MichiganStoleTitle]

yippee now its the everyone gets a participation trophy league, lets just expand to 100.

what happened to this thing, we bend more rules than the catholic church

Listen to me. The NCAA tournament committee makes anybody and everybody over there. And the way that they do it, it's all ****** up. Teams don't get their finger pricked. There's no sword and gun on the table...

Either this thing has meaning or no meaning.

 

[SPK145]

Seton Hall would have made it with a 76-team tournament.

Going forward, the Big East should get 4 teams in, maybe 5. Probably no more than that.

 

[Piratz]

Carino has written that making the tournament is no longer required for a coach to keep his job at SH. I don't agree with this but his reasoning is if the school won't fully fund RS/NIL like an average BE team, how can you require a coach to be better than an average BE team?

My question is, does raising the NCAAT to 76 teams now again make it a necessary achievement at Seton Hall or is it acceptable to be a competitive, mid-pack BE team?

I think it’s a lot of semantics and grinding. Nobody is going to be accepting of constant losing seasons in BE. The RS, donations, corporate partnerships need some value to keep renewing and growing. You have to be relevant.

You have to be in the NCAAT hunt, IMO. That will get better with more spots but it’s also harder to coach now. Sha’s done that 3/4 seasons here and I think that’s the point versus on the hot seat bc he’s 0/4 NCAAT.

Also means middle of BE to me.

 

[HallGuy2323]

At some point it stops being an accomplishment. And that’s what these sports leagues are selling out. Ruining their regular season for postseason dollars.

 

[Piratz]

I also don't like expanding it.

There were what, 365 teams playing D1 last year? So adding another 8 to 76 making it is still an achievement and hasn't diluted it too much, I guess. YET. But the sport is now so top heavy because of the rules that what are you really accomplishing here by adding more average power conference teams? Just more games to market and bet on.

 

[radecicco]

Agree it’s still an accomplishment to make the NCAAT, especially for a school like SHU with middling $$$ in a P5 league. 76 teams out of 365 is still only 21%; compare that to the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL. Some will blow it off as participation trophies and that’s ok. If we get in, no one will care.

 

[SHUSource]

Agree it’s still an accomplishment to make the NCAAT, especially for a school like SHU with middling $$$ in a P5 league. 76 teams out of 365 is still only 21%; compare that to the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL. Some will blow it off as participation trophies and that’s ok. If we get in, no one will care.

Right, but I think most people believe those leagues' postseasons are far too long and bloated. The NCAA Tournament has always been the gold standard of postseasons -- absolutely perfect, or as close as we get to it in big-time sports.