Tennessee Tech Athletic Director Casey Fox said he hopes the NCAA Tournament expansion to 76 teams will help mid major and smaller schools.
The NCAA is expected to increase the tournament field from 68 to 76 teams. Fox said the proposal, projected to be formalized this month, could mean more opportunities for the Golden Eagle to stamp their own ticket to the Madness.
“It could potentially mean conferences like ours, the Southern Conference that we’re going into might, have a chance to potentially win a game and move forward,” Fox said. ” And winning a game in the NCAA Tournament is a big deal. You get those units that are worth some money that help, you know, with those resources you need to fund programs.”
Rather than focus on the downsides of expansion, Fox said the basketball program plans on embracing a tournament change that, at this point, feels inevitable
Tech’s will join the Southern Conference as one of 11 teams including Mercer, UNC-Greensboro and Western Carolina.
“I’m not sure if that it really impacts us from, from that standpoint because it’s just going to expand the at large teams,” Fox said. “You know, maybe if, if the Southern Conference has a good year there, there’s an opportunity to get a second team in. As, as we look at it, but we’re still going to take the approach we got to win our conference tournament to get in the NCAA tournament.”
Golden Eagles head basketball coach Tobin Anderson famously upset a No. 1 seeded Perdue in the first round of the 2023 tournament while coaching Fairleigh Dickinson University.
No stranger to college basketball’s biggest stage either, Fox was the AD at Montana State two years ago when the Bobcats took an 88-81 overtime loss to Grambling State in the First Four in Dayton.
“Part of what makes the NCAA tournament, the men’s tournament so special is the Cinderella’s, the upsets, and this might be diluting that and taking away some of those upsets,” Fox said. “But of course, you know, with the open transfer portal and, the revenue share, especially the bigger schools having a bigger slice or more resources, you’re starting to see some of that, you know, go away anyway.”
Golden Eagles assistant coach Raul Placeres said the new changes amplify the unpredictiablity of an already chaos-fueled sporting event.
“Expanding the field obviously means more teams for the mid majors and the smaller conference champions to get a shot at the national stage,” Placeres said. “I think that can be transformative for programs and it reinforces the idea that college sports isn’t just about, you know, the powerhouse institutions.”
For now, Placeres said the team and its staff are focused on filling out the current roster and personnel as they prepare to compete in a new conference.
TTU has not played in the NCAA Tournament since 1963 when they lost 111-42 to Loyola. Last season, the Golden Eagles finished No. 8 in Ohio Valley Conference with a 13-18 overall record.
“We feel good about the resources that we’re committing to men’s basketball and what we’re doing, and we’re hopeful that we can go in to the Southern Conference this first year and, you know, make some noise,” Fox said.
