NCAA Tournament expansion? Former MAAC commissioner has mixed feelings

Rich Ensor spent 35 years advocating for mid-majors in collegiate sports as commissioner of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference before retiring in 2023. It was on his watch that Saint Peter’s made its iconic run through March Madness to the doorstep of the Final Four in 2022.

So how does the longtime Lacey resident feel about the NCAA’s decision to expand its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments from 68 to 76 teams?

Unlike most folks in this spirited public debate, Ensor has mixed feelings and a nuanced outlook to the groundbreaking change.

“As a fan I don’t like it, frankly, because I think it does dilute the field to some extent,” he said, “and as someone who came up through the mid-major world, I’m not convinced that major-majors aren’t once again getting the short end of the stick on this.”

St. Peter's Peacocks head coach Shaheen Holloway and his son Xavier collect some hardware from MAAC commissioner Rich Ensor at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall.

But as someone who spent a lifetime in college sports governance, including a five-year stint on the NCAA Division 1 women's basketball committee, “They’re selling it the way you have to sell it,” he said. “It provides more opportunities and they’ve been able to increase the revenue flow from it, so why wouldn’t you expand and provide more opportunities for student-athletes to compete?”

Ultimately, Ensor said, the success of the new format will come down to public perception – whether the casual observer who fills out a bracket each March takes the new “first round” into account. That round will encompass 24 teams – the 12 lowest-seeded at-large teams squaring off in six games and the 12 lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers squaring off in six games. All 12 of those contents will be jammed into that first week, prior to the traditional Thursday opening of the Round of 64.

“As much as they’ll try to make the bracket look the same, with all of these extra teams, it isn’t,” Ensor said. “Nobody (in the general public) is really paying attention until Thursday when the Round of 64 stars. If public perception is it’s going to be a play-in round, that’s a phrase that always drove the people in that (First Four) bracket nuts. It’s not a play-in. But if it’s presented that way – if the media doesn’t quite cover it the same way and if people don’t consider it part of the bracket they fill out – it will be a (perception) disadvantage for those teams who in in there.”