Donahue Says Tournament Expansion Unlikely to Benefit Ivy League

The Dartmouth interviewed Cornell head coach, Steve Donahue about the potential for the NCAA Tournament to expand from 65 to 96 teams. Below is an excerpt of the article:

Tournament expansion unlikely to benefit Ivy League, Cornell coach says

...even with 96 teams in the tournament, it is unlikely that the Ivy League would receive a second tournament bid. The move is being pushed by power conference schools that face strong schedules but often miss out on tournament bids, Cornell men’s basketball head coach Steve Donahue said in an interview with The Dartmouth.

Donahue, whose squad has captured the Ivy League’s automatic bid the past two years, is not a fan of the proposal.

“My initial reaction, not knowing all the things that they’re talking about is that I don’t like the idea,” Donahue said. “I think that we’re going to end up watering down the product. I think there’s great intrigue [in the tournament] right now, and my initial reaction would be let’s not mess with something like that.”

The extra bids would probably not help smaller schools such as Dartmouth, Donahue said.

“That isn’t why they’re doing this,” Donahue said. “This is being initiated by the higher conferences. I don’t think that’s why they’re doing it, trust me on that one.”