As NCAA mulls expansion, Greg Kampe, John Calipari make plea: 'Please don't change it'

Pittsburgh — On Wednesday, you had two of the sport's great talkers doing a whole lot of talking.

And Oakland coach Greg Kampe and Kentucky coach John Calipari, two gents in wildly different situations, agreed on this: Don't expand the field of the NCAA Tournament from 68 to the proposed 96.

"Please don't change it. Please don't change it," Kampe said, ahead of Thursday's first-round game against Kentucky at PPG Paints Arena. "It is one of the three greatest sporting events in the world. ... You argue the World Cup, and you're probably right; the Super Bowl; and this tournament are the three greatest sporting events in the world.

"The only reason I would be for expansion for the 96 or whatever they're talking about is to keep us in it. If that's the only way we're going to stay in it, then I'm for it.

"What I'm saying is, don't keep us out."

The current NCAA Tournament setup — 68 teams, with four First Four games, before the Round of 64, in place since 2011 — awards automatic bids to 32 conference champions, going to tournament champions in conferences that have tournaments. Twenty-six of those bids go to mid-majors, and for many of them, like Oakland out of the Horizon League, the auto-bid is the only way into the Big Dance in most years.

The fear for Kampe is that any expansion would take away the automatic bids that are the livelihood for mid-majors, and go to a more strict NET or KenPom ranking that tilts more toward power conferences.

The fear is real. The NIT, run by the NCAA, went that way this year, taking away the auto-bids for mid-majors.

"This is the Holy Grail for mid-majors, right? It is," said Kampe, 68, who's in the Division I NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in the last 20 years. "You know, we're what make this tournament — the little guy.

"Why does everybody love 'Hoosiers,' right, the greatest movie? Why? Because of the little guy.

"Trey Townsend, Jack Gohlke, Blake (Lampman), they could be Jimmy Chitwood tomorrow.

"Don't take that away from us."

Every year, when the NCAA Tournament field comes out on a Sunday in mid-March, there are gripes about which bubble teams got in, which ones didn't, who got an unfortunate seed, and who got an underserving seed.

A 10-person committee made up of athletic directors and conference commissioners comes up with the tournament field, which includes 36 at-large bids, as well as the seeding in the four regions, which teams play where.

There's some math involved, and there's a lot of eye test. It creates a lot of debate, good or bad — depending, of course, on where your team falls in the equation.

Calipari has had his issues with the process over the years, because it is inexact, but he doesn't want change, either. He likens it to the College Football Playoff, which used to be two teams, then went to four, and now is expanding to 12, starting this year. No matter the number, there will be folks who are upset.

The NCAA Transformation Committee recommended last year that each sport increase its postseason pool to 25% of all the teams, which is where the 96-team model for the NCAA Tournament comes from. The NCAA women's tournament also currently has 68 teams.

"I hope it stays where it is," said Calipari, 65, who is in the NCAA Tournament for the 23rd time, over three stops at UMass, Memphis and Kentucky. "You know, people get mad. They get mad at the committee. You won't believe this. I've been mad at the committee a few times.

"It's part of the NCAA Tournament, not getting in, getting in, bad seed, good seed.

"Let's keep it at ... it's too good a thing. It's the event.

"Don't mess with something that's great."

tpaul@detroitnews.com

@tonypaul1984