Syracuse Basketball: The NCAA Tournament is likely to expand, but I wish it wouldn't

Based on what the NCAA's president just said, and other media reports in recent months, we're likely to see the Big Dance grow to beyond 68 participants in the future. Could that help propel Syracuse basketball into the NCAA Tournament, an event that the Orange has missed on four straight occasions?

Perhaps.

Yet while I want to see my alma mater play deep into March and early April, I do not want the NCAA Tournament to expand. Although the chances of it growing seem more and more likely, perhaps when, not if.

Hey, I get it. College sports are evolving all the time. Ongoing conference realignment. Name, image and likeness. The transfer portal's explosion. Future revenue-sharing. Other factors.

It would be awesome if the NCAA Tournament stayed as it is.

I guess I'm simply an old-school Syracuse basketball fanatic. I yearn for the days when the Orange resided in the Big East Conference. I didn't mind when the NCAA Tournament went to 68 teams in 2011, resulting in the First Four.

The First Four is cool. Heck, the 'Cuse has participated in it, and won in the First Four back in the 2018 March Madness, when the Orange was a double-digit seed and journeyed to the Sweet 16.

But why can't we merely leave the NCAA Tournament at 68 squads? I know there are financial considerations at play. So be it. CBS Sports insider Jon Rothstein has been vocal about not expanding the Big Dance, and he's in the know way more than I am.

In any event, per an Associated Press article on Thursday, among other reports, NCAA President Charlie Baker says he sees "value" in expanding the Big Dance by several teams, and he wants a decision made in the coming months.

Baker said in part: "If you have a tournament that's got 64 or 68 teams in it, you're going to have a bunch of teams that are probably among what most people would consider to be the best 68 or 70 teams in the country that aren't going to make the tournament, period. The point behind going from 68 to 72 or 76 is to basically give some of those schools that were probably among the 72, 76, 68, 64 best teams in the country a way into the tournament."

I understand what Baker is saying. I truly do. On the flip side, some pundits (and fans) have argued that expanding the NCAA Tournament would just water it down, when, as it is, some of the last at-large bids given out year after year of late are to squads that are pretty sub-par.

I'll say this. If March Madness grows, and that results in more mid-major programs getting in, as opposed to power-conference teams that have spotty records, I'd be in favor of that. As I noted at the onset, I want to see Syracuse basketball make the Big Dance season after season, but I want that to transpire because the Orange is winning a lot of games. Not because the NCAA Tournament's field is larger.