A tourney expansion poll

Good morning! If your Wednesday wasn’t as good as A.J. Dybantsa’s, that OK. It’s not everyday you ink an exclusive trading card and memorabilia multi-year deal with Topps that’s reportedly worth eight figures. Not bad for a guy who has yet to play a college hoops game.

Let's get to the rest of Wednesday’s news.

1. If NCAA tourney expansion happens, it’s clear why

The last time the NCAA Tournament expanded was in 2011. That’s when it went to 68 teams with the inaugural First Four games.

But those games are largely separate from the overall tournament. The 64-team format, which began in 1985, is one of the aspects fans love about the tournament. It’s big, clear four-quadrant bracket where the winner wins six games.

The NCAA is expected to expand the tournament to either 72 or 76 teams this week. No formal vote has taken place as of Wednesday.

If the NCAA responded to public opinion, expansion wouldn’t happen.

This isn’t a scientific poll, and it’s only representative of college basketball fans who are on Twitter/X.com in early July. But those voters likely would be your die-hard fans — and they are overwhelmingly voting against expansion.

As of 7 am ET on Thursday morning, 11,644 people voted, and 93.6% are against tournament expansion.

We’ll know this week what the NCAA chooses.

The results of an expanded tournament wouldn’t significantly alter the team composition. It’d still be most power conference teams and most of the leagues would remain one-bid leagues, with perhaps a small increase.

Over the last 10 years, 83% of the at-large bids have gone to power conference programs. And it’s unclear if any expansion would result in any significant new TV revenue (there are varying reports). An expansion would be viewed as more power consolidation among the power conferences.

We’ll see what the NCAA does.

2. Which mid-majors are most likely to dancing again?

I’m in an NCAA Tournament mindset now. So let’s focus on mid-majors.

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