ACC basketball coaches want a 346-team NCAA tournament as coronavirus lingers
ACC men’s basketball coaches on Wednesday voted unanimously to back a proposal to include every eligible Division I team in the 2021 NCAA tournament.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski initiated the idea weeks ago, according to multiple coaches who participated in the vote, but wished to remain anonymous. Since the story broke, many coaches around the league put out their own statements including Wake Forest’s first-year coach Steve Forbes and Pittsburgh’s Jeff Capel.
Most of their releases cited three factors in support of the proposal: player safety, player incentive and the celebration of the tournament.
That included a statement from Duke and Krzyzewski, who added, “This is not a regular season. It is clearly an irregular season that will require something different. Our sport needs to be agile and creative. Most importantly, an all-inclusive postseason tournament will allow a unique and unprecedented opportunity for every team and every student-athlete to compete for a national championship.
N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts released a statement on Twitter Wednesday saying, “I believe making this move gives us the best environment to incentivize every program to implement the safest playing conditions for the sport we all love.”
The league’s 15 head coaches have participated in a weekly video call in an attempt to stay ahead of the constantly changing landscape of the coronavirus pandemic. Concern over the basketball tournament reached its peak last week on that call, when coaches learned of the idea being floated around of reducing the NCAA tournament from 68 to 32 teams in order to keep them all in one bubble.
“We’re in unprecedented times, so why not try something different one time?,” one coach told the News & Observer Wednesday. “Everything we’re doing is different.”
One of the coaches said the ACC did not have a formal proposal written up, but wanted all of college basketball to begin having the conversation to shape what happens this season.
The prevailing thought is that conference tournaments, which many times are to reward an automatic qualifier for the NCAA tournament, would not take place. Teams would end the regular season and begin the massive NCAA tournament that would include 346 teams. (Schools that are re-classifying would not eligible, neither are schools on sanction due to APR scores or recruiting violations.)
When will the ACC basketball season begin?
As one coach pointed out, basketball coaches aren’t even sure when the season will officially begin as of yet. And even if it does start on time in November, he finds it hard to believe they will play a complete 31-game schedule.
“Nobody knows how many games we’ll play this year,” the coach told The N&O. “You can have a full schedule and you may not play but 20. When the season starts, there’s going to be so many cancellations due to breakouts.”
Having every team make the tournament would eliminate the pressure of having to re-schedule games that get postponed or, say, making sure teams play the same number of conference games. In doing so, it would also eliminate the need for the tournament selection committee having to weigh what teams are deserving of a bid with the potential of a schedule being so uneven.
“How many games will be missed because someone came down with COVID?” one coach said. “You would take all of that out of the equation. It would be good for college basketball. It would be good for everyone being involved.”
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the ACC tournament was canceled before Florida State and Clemson took the floor for the start of quarterfinal play in Greensboro on March 13. A few hours later, the NCAA announced that it would not play its tournament for the first time since its inception in 1939.
This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 12:55 PM.