March Madness May Be Even Wilder In 2021 with 353-Team Tourney

March Madness 2020 was one of the first dominos to fall in the COVID pandemic. It looks like the ACC and their coaches have teamed up to figure out a way to make the March Madness possible in 2021. Their idea? Just let everyone in the NCAA Tournament.

ACC coaches have been tweeting out their support for this proposed plan, and more coaches are expected to voice their support throughout the day.

C’mon man… let’s give these kids some hope for the tournament after all they have been through over the past year! pic.twitter.com/RccGRta6Bt

— Mike Brey (@NDMikeBrey) September 9, 2020

Louisville head coach Chris Mack also chimed in.

pic.twitter.com/Tn5kldaT3J

— Chris Mack (@CoachChrisMack) September 9, 2020

According to ESPN, this plan was spearheaded by Mike Krzyzewski, and it’s beginning to pick up real traction throughout college basketball.

I’ll be honest, it took me a couple of minutes to warm up to the idea of an all-inclusive March Madness tournament, but I think I’m there. If we’ve learned anything about sports during these times, it’s that anything is possible. There is no precedent for any of this. If making March Madness possible means letting all 351 team in, then so be it.

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The NCAA has been working to make this upcoming basketball season happen, and some of their ideas of been contrary to the proposal from the ACC coaches.

NCAA President Mark Emmert has gone on the record saying that an NCAA Tournament with less than the typical 64 teams could occur.

“Starting with 64 teams is tough. Thirty-two, OK, maybe that’s a manageable number. Sixteen, certainly manageable. But you’ve got to figure out those logistics,” Emmert said in an interview on the NCAA’s website last month. “There’s doubtlessly ways to make that work.”

Obviously the health and safety of all the student-athletes and staff is the most important aspect of this whole thing. With that being said, I think a March Madness tournament with less than 64 teams would be a real shame.

That platform would take away from a lot of the cinderella stories that make March Madness so great. Undoubtedly, it will be hard if not impossible to play non-conference games in the regular season this year. If that does end up being the case, teams that aren’t in power 5 conferences will have a tough time making a case to be included. An all-inclusive tournament would incentivize smaller schools to grind out the season during this tough time.

If the NCAA can work out the logistics, I’d be in for an all-inclusive March Madness. Maybe we’d even see some crazier upsets than we’ve seen in the past.