STORRS — If UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma believed that expanding the NCAA Tournament would lead to the inclusion of more mid-major teams in the postseason, he would be all for it.
But Auriemma understands how these things work after 41 years at the helm of the program, and he’s certain that won’t be the case under the proposal to increase the tournament field to 76 teams beginning in 2026-27. The Huskies’ coach described the proposed expansion as a money grab by the Power 4 conferences — the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC — seeking more at-large bids to one of the most lucrative events in college sports.
“This kind of is the prequel to there being 86 or 88 or 92 teams in the tournament, and they all come from four conferences,” Auriemma said Monday. “Or the way it’s going now, maybe there’s only 64 teams and they come from two conferences. I don’t know, but this is not about wanting to give more people opportunities. People are saying that those play-in games or these other teams that get in, it benefits them financially. Well, only if you give it to teams that need the money from the tournament.”
The NCAA has discussed expanding both the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments for more than a year, but ESPN reported last week that the proposal is on track to be formalized before next season with mid-May as a potential timeline for an announcement. Moving from the current 68-team field to 76 teams would turn the current First Four play-in games into a 12-game round with 24 teams competing for spots in the traditional 64-team bracket.
Auriemma said he didn’t even think 68 teams were deserving of competing in the 2026 tournament, and his biggest concern with the expanded bracket is that most — if not all — of the additional spots will go to power conference teams with losing records in their leagues. The first four teams out of this year’s March Madness included BYU, with a 9-9 record in the Big 12, and Texas A&M, with a 7-9 record in the SEC.
“I love when they say, ‘Well if you played in this league, what would your record be?’ Well, we don’t play in that league, and we don’t have $20 million budgets, so suck it up and win more games,” Auriemma said. “Like Rory McIlroy said, ‘Play better.’ … It’s a rigged system, and it’s a system that’s intended, going forward, to benefit those schools that supposedly play in leagues that are so difficult that if you have a below-.500 record, you should get in.”
Since the dissolution of the Pac-12 due to massive conference realignment after the 2023-24 season, teams outside the power conferences have struggled to get into the NCAA Tournament even with strong records. The Big East hasn’t received multiple at-large bids in women’s basketball since landing three teams in the 2024 tournament, and no mid-major conference received more than two bids to the tournament in 2026. Auriemma also sees the devaluing of mid-majors on the men’s side, pointing to Miami (Ohio) having to play a First Four game this year after losing its conference tournament championship despite finishing the regular season with a 31-0 record.
“The fact that Miami had to struggle to get into the tournament, that’s what’s wrong with the tournament, not that there’s not enough teams in it,” Auriemma said. “What’s wrong is that these really good teams that have great seasons deserve to be in.”
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Auriemma also weighed in on the new eligibility rules that the NCAA is considering across all sports for the 2026-27 season. Last week, the Division I Board of Directors advanced a proposal that would grant student-athletes up to five years of eligibility over a five-year period beginning the academic year after they turn 19 or graduate from high school, whichever happens first. The proposal would eliminate redshirts, including medical redshirts, and includes only select exemptions for maternity leave, military service or religious missions.
The proposal is an attempt by the NCAA to re-standardize eligibility and prevent the constant lawsuits by individual athletes for waivers and exceptions that the organization has faced in recent years.
“I guess it had to come to that … with all the appeals and all the exemptions and all the lawsuits, you’ve got guys now suing the NCAA that have already played six years,” Auriemma said. “So if it’s five (years) to play five (seasons), but that’s it, no exceptions, zero, then I think that’s a good thing. I think one of the things that coaches have talked about, which (the NCAA) has talked about, is an age requirement. When you turn 19, or when you graduate from high school, your clock starts, and now you’ve got five years from that time to finish your eligibility.
“If that’s the case, and that’s how they’re going to do it, I think that’s a that’s a positive step in the right direction.”
But Auriemma said nothing in college athletics will return to a place of stability until the NCAA figures out a way to better regulate the transfer portal. The Huskies’ coach believes players should be restricted to one transfer without consequence, but if they want to transfer multiple times, they should be required to sit out a season as they were prior to the transfer portal’s implementation in 2018-19.
Because of the lack of regulation, Auriemma said it’s opened up players to be taken advantage of by third parties looking to profit off of their transfer. He said agents are often charging coaches simply to recruit the players they represent, and many will begin searching for new opportunities for their players in the middle of the season months before the portal opens.
“I don’t know that I’ve met anyone other than the agents representing these kids that thinks this is sustainable,” Auriemma said. “These kids are getting ripped off in so many ways. … The process just keeps going and going and going, and these are uncertified agents, a lot of these people. In one way, we’re paying players — which is great, don’t get me wrong — so we kind of have a professional organization going on now … but it’s run like an amateur mom-and-pop shop, so those two things don’t go together.”
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