Memories of winning the NCAA First Four Tournament at Grambling State University in Dayton, Ohio will ceaselessly be remembered by the men’s basketball head coach Don’t trust Jackson. This yr, Grambling entered the tournament for the first time in history, winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament championship, a goal Jackson had been seven years in the making.

“Playing in the NCAA Tournament was an amazing feeling for me, the coaching staff, our players, our alumni and our institution,” Jackson told Andscape. “There is nothing like competing at the highest level and making it to the tournament.”

However, in March, the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference Greg Sankeyco-chair of the NCAA Division I Transformation Committee, which he previously advisable tournament expansionsuggested eliminating automatic qualifying, an idea of ​​the head men’s basketball coach at Michigan State University Tomek Izzo That’s right is value considering. However, many other coaches argue that implementing this proposal would have a negative impact on tournament participation for mid-major programs – reminiscent of those at historically black colleges and universities.

Currently, two HBCU athletic conferences in Division I basketball, the Southwestern Athletic Conference and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, receive automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. Other mid-sized conferences with HBCU members, reminiscent of Coastal Sports Association (CAA) i Ohio Valley Conference (OVC), also receive automatic offers. In the last 10 years, no HBCU organization has received an at-large bid to the tournament.

In a tournament known for its Power Five dubs and middling matches David vs. Goliath gamesmany imagine the college basketball landscape will change if David isn’t any longer capable of compete.

“That is the beauty and magic of March. If we subtract that, we don’t have 12 (over) 5 upsets and 16 (over) 1 upset,” said Howard University men’s basketball head coach Kenneth Blakeneywhose team lost the match in the First Four v. Wagner College in this year’s tournament. “Two (mid-major) teams in the Final Four last year, that’s the beauty and magic of what makes March Madness March Madness. There are so many brackets that are thrown out the window and that can be a problem, but that’s what makes March special.”

Head women’s basketball coach at Jackson State University Thomas Reed will always remember the time her team got here near upsetting LSU in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

“The NCAA Tournament brings prestige and honor to our program and gives us a different type of platform to showcase what being an HBCU is all about.…We get a lot of viewership because people know we’re going to compete with a chance to win,” Reed said. “Having adequate representation at the NCAA Tournament helps shine a positive light on our culture and our institution. We will show that we have now great coaches and great players.

Another post-season tournament, the so-called National Invitation Tournamenteliminated automatic bids for mid-major regular-season champions for the 2024 NIT and no HBCUs that may have mechanically qualified a season ago were chosen to participate. The Women’s National Invitation Tournament will still allow regular season champions to qualify; two HBCUs were chosen for this yr’s postseason tournament.

“Now the NCAA is trying to follow the NIT blueprint and layout by eliminating a lot of mid-major basketball teams,” he said LeVelle Moton, head men’s basketball coach at North Carolina Central University. “I can not imagine the NCAA Tournament without high schools. whether or not they are HBCUs or low-level majors. “In my opinion, I don’t think people want to see another tournament with all the Power Five schools.”

Moton has 4 MEAC tournaments under his belt Champions since he took over the team at his alma mater in 2009. After the Eagles’ first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2014Moton remembers the chancellor at the time Debra Saunders-White informing him that first-year enrollment for next yr was already filled.

“Our website has skyrocketed. People were calling saying, ‘Here it’s (basketball player). Sam Jones he went, didn’t he? “It’s been proven that the best teams in football and the best teams in basketball get (their) sign-ups through the windows every year,” Moton said.

This translates into higher athletic fees for college kids, Moton said.

“The economic impact of the tournament on the university is such that this type of marketing cannot be paid for,” he added. “It’s valued at probably $25 million.”

After earning his first NCAA Tournament berth as a head coach in 2023, the head women’s basketball coach at Norfolk State University Larry Vickers I saw that playing in the tournament opened the door to recruitment. The Spartans lost to South Carolina in the first round of the tournament, but received praise from the Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley.

A couple of months later, North Carolina State University transferred Diamond Johnson, a former five-star recruit committed to play for the Spartans.

“So many people emailed from everywhere. “Hey coach, I’ve never heard of your program, but I like watching you play, I like your style of play.” Obviously basketball gives us that opportunity where there’s not a huge difference in scholarships and stuff like that, but I don’t think we’re going to be able to recruit as well right now,” Vickers said.

“We managed to get it Anjane Richardson, who was in the top five kids in our state. The freshman said, “This HBCU culture is for me and I want to stay closer to home.” Then we received Diamond Johnson. … But if we do not make it to the tournament, every top team will just have 15 amazing players waiting for his or her turn because everyone desires to play at this point.”

Head men’s basketball coach at Tennessee State University Brian Collins participated in the NCAA Tournament as a player, helping lead Belmont University to its first tournament in 2006. He also bid for the tournament as an assistant coach at East Tennessee State University in 2017.

Tennessee State is a member of the OVC and Collins realizes that eliminating mid-range offers may have a direct impact on his players.

“If you take that away, think about it, why are you playing then? What are you fighting for? It’s hard to put into words, but if you take that away, you take away the dreams of the student-athletes who have worked so hard,” Collins said. “We would never have heard about Steph Curry and what he did at Davidson. What Damian Lillard did at Weber State, Paul George at Fresno State, Ja Morant at Murray State. You would never see these guys on stage and they would show you that they are just as talented as the guys from North Carolina.”

The issue of eliminating automatic offers also caught the attention of the head men’s basketball coach at North Carolina State University Kevin Keatts, whose team reached the Final Four of this yr’s tournament. Keatts, who previously spent several seasons at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) in the CAA, understands the struggles mid-major programs must undergo to qualify for the NCAA Tournament and the privilege that Power Five schools have.

The Wolfpack won Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, but he had below is the recording of the conference 0.500. However, Keatts’ program still earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

If Keatts was still working at UNCW, it won’t have earned him the pick.

“In my time at UNCW, I won 28 games, and if I didn’t win that championship game, I probably wasn’t going to the NCAA tournament, so I had to (win it),” Keatts said during the Final Four. “So I hope there are other opportunities (for mid-majors). … If we could expand the tournament — and I’m not saying expand it a little bit just to get the Power Fives to attract more teams — I would like to give some opportunities to the mid-majors as well.”

Retired women’s basketball coach at Hampton University David the Sixth led the Pirates to 6 NCAA Tournament berths. Despite advancing to the tournament multiple times, Six has advocated for another option for HBCUs: he believes the NCAA should create a separate mid-major tournament much like the FCS football playoffs.

“HBCUs have great coaches and great talent,” Six said. The point is that schools need to speculate in it. They need to put resources into it, and that’s difficult. HBCUs are helpful and great at what they do, but you understand, if someone is making $175 million from their athletic program, HBCUs haven’t any likelihood of competing.

“Every now and then people say, ‘Well, you know, we’ve had Cinderellas before,’ but there were a lot more (Power Five) winners than Cinderellas.”

However, given the NCAA Tournament’s long and storied history and the national support behind it, other coaches do not believe a separate tournament would have the same appeal.

“All brackets are the NCAA tournament. This is where everyone’s heart is, not only fans, coaches, players, but also consumers. That’s everyone. This is historic,” Moton said. “That’s why I don’t think starting your own business will have the same financial, economic or just emotional impact as it does now.”