Sconnies Speak

Tag: march madness

  • The Effect of the Transfer Portal and NIL on March Madness

    By: Jack Kohr

    The NCAA Tournament has always been full of surprises. However, this year, the surprise was, coincidentally, the lack of surprises. For the first time since 2008, and only the second time in the history of the NCAA Tournament, all four No. 1 seeds made it to the Final Four. This raises the question: What made the top teams this year so dominant? 

    The answer: The transfer portal and NIL. 

    The transfer portal was introduced in 2018 as a new system for NCAA athletes to declare their intent to transfer and receive contact from other programs. From 2018 to 2021, however, transfer players were required to sit out for one year after transferring before they could play for their new school.

    In 2021, transfer portal rules were updated so that first-time transfer athletes were granted eligibility to play for their new school immediately. This updated eligibility requirement, in addition to the change allowing student-athletes to profit off of their name, image, and likeness, made recruiting, particularly in basketball and football, a “pay-for-play” environment. 

    In 2024, portal rules were updated again, removing the limit on the number of times athletes can transfer during their career without penalty. Although college athletes have essentially become quasi-professional athletes today, NIL deals in tandem with transfer portal rules that allow players to jump from school to school every year give big programs a major advantage. 

    In addition to all four No. 1 seeds making the Final Four, the effect of the transfer portal and NIL was visible in the Sweet Sixteen. Other than No. 10 seed Arkansas, an SEC school with a Hall-of-Fame college basketball coach in John Calipari, all teams were, at worst, a No. 6 seed. 

    Then, the favorites in all Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games proceeded to go 12-0. By giving players the ability to transfer without limitations and schools the power to lure them in with NIL money, we may have just taken the madness out of March Madness. 

    The NCAA tournament coined its name of March Madness because it has been a tournament where truly anything can happen. Low-seeded schools from mid-major conferences like UMBC, St. Peter’s, FAU, Loyola Chicago, and others had the chance to shock the world and put their name on the map. 

    Now, basketball powerhouses can poach the best players from mid-major conferences with the promise of money and the opportunity to play on the biggest stage all season long. This not only leads to mid-major schools being less competitive come tournament time, but also adds firepower to the blue bloods. Take the NCAA Tournament Champion Florida Gators, for example. 

    Florida’s two leading scorers all year, Walter Clayton Jr. and Alijah Martin, were transfers. And guess from where? Mid-major schools. Clayton Jr., the 2025 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, transferred from Iona. Alijah Martin helped lead the beloved cinderella No. 9 seed FAU Owls to the Final Four during his sophomore season in 2023 before transferring to the Gators prior to the 2025 season. These are two prime examples of how the transfer portal and NIL are impacting college basketball. 

    While we only have one year of data points, there are certainly concerns for fans who cherish the unpredictability and possibility that is March Madness. If outcomes in the coming years are similar to this year’s tournament, the NCAA may need to rethink the current rules surrounding the transfer portal and NIL.

  • Don’t Mess with March: The NCAA Tournament Is Just Fine at 68

    By: Joseph Herrmann

    Every year, March Madness is a huge success. It’s the most beautiful type of chaos – the buzzer beaters, the Cinderella stories, the brackets busted by noon on Thursday. And somehow, right when it feels like we’ve collectively nailed the formula for a perfect tournament, someone in charge wants to mess with it.

    Lately, there’s been noise – too much noise – about expanding the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament beyond the current 68 teams. The NCAA Transformation Committee opened the door last year, and now we’ve got administrators and conference commissioners hinting that more teams might be “good for the game.” But let’s face it, it’s not a good idea to expand the competition.

    Now, I get it. On paper, more teams sounds like more fun. More games, more players getting the spotlight, more “meaningful basketball.” But here’s the thing: the tournament isn’t broken. It doesn’t need fixing. In fact, the charm of March Madness is that it’s exclusive enough to make the stakes feel high and the upsets feel electric. Each season, teams vie for a coveted spot and a chance to bring their school a national championship. With only 68 teams making the cut, every regular season and conference tournament game carries weight. Expanding it risks turning something special into just another bloated bracket.

    One of the biggest arguments for expansion is that it would give more “deserving” teams a shot. But let’s be honest—if you’re on the bubble and didn’t make the cut, there’s probably a reason. You either didn’t win enough, didn’t play anybody, or just didn’t get it done when it mattered. That’s sports.

    And let’s not pretend like the Selection Committee has been stingy. With 68 spots already, that’s nearly 20% of Division I teams making the tournament. You want in? Win some games. Win your conference. Don’t lose to a bottom-feeder in January and then act shocked when you’re left out in March.

    Bubble teams getting snubbed actually fuels some of the best conversations in sports. It gives Selection Sunday real tension. If you let in everyone who’s close, the bubble loses all its drama, which makes up a good chunk of the fun.

    Do we really need to see the 10th-best team in a power conference sneak in with a 17–15 record? Do we want to reward .500 squads just because they play in big TV markets? That’s exactly what expansion would do.

    This season, for example, the bubble was as weak as we’ve seen in years. Yet somehow, historically strong programs like North Carolina still made the tournament, even though they stumbled to a 1–12 record in Quad 1 games, the very metric the selection committee claims to value most. Expansion wouldn’t raise the level of competition, it would just let in more underwhelming teams riding name recognition and conference clout. Instead of sharpening the field, it would water it down.

    Adding more teams dilutes the product. It rewards mediocrity. One of the best parts of March Madness is seeing a red-hot mid-major knock off a flawed major conference team. If we expand the field, we risk crowding out those mid-majors with more middle-of-the-road Power Five squads who had their chance and blew it.

    Let’s also talk about logistics. If you expand to 80 or 96 teams, how does the schedule even work? Are we adding more days? More play-in games? Cramming even more into an already-packed four-day opening weekend?

    Part of what makes the tournament so watchable is that it ends. The first weekend is a sprint, and by the time we get to the Final Four, we’re emotionally spent—in a good way. Stretch it out too long or add too many teams, and people start to tune out. That’s not good for anybody.

    At the end of the day, the push for expansion isn’t about the game. It’s about the money. More games mean more TV slots, more ad revenue, and more opportunities to squeeze dollars out of viewers and sponsors. But just because there’s more cash to grab doesn’t mean it’s better for the sport. In fact, it might hurt the product in the long term. If people start to feel like the tournament is just another cash grab, the magic wears off. And once you lose that magic, you don’t get it back.

    We’ve got a great thing going. A 68-team bracket that balances opportunity with exclusivity, madness with merit. It’s big enough to include surprises but small enough to make those surprises feel meaningful. Expanding the tournament won’t make March better. It’ll make it messier, longer, and less special. Sometimes, the best move is to leave a good thing alone.

    So, NCAA, if you’re listening, don’t mess with March. You’ve already got the best postseason event in American sports. No need to overthink it.