Oklahoma’s Porter Moser reacts to NCAA Tournament expanding to 76 teams

As the first team out of this year’s tournament, a recent change to the number of teams is certainly a boost for the Sooners.

The NCAA made it official Thursday with the expansion of the Men’s and Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournaments to 76 teams, up from 68 teams.

It’s the first expansion since 2011 when the tournament expanded from 65 teams to 68 teams. It’s the biggest expansion since 1985, when the tournament expanded from 32 teams to 64 teams.

There are plenty of opinions about the change — most fans are not in favor of this change.

The discussion surrounds changing something that is perfect, but adding more teams means more games and more teams in the tournament without changing much of the bracket structure.

The change will add more games to the First Four games, changing it to the Opening Round, where there will be six games on both Tuesday and Wednesday of the tournament starting.

The people involved in the tournament are a near-consensus with the expansion, including OU men’s basketball coach Porter Moser, who said the expansion is a positive for the entire sport.

“I think the tournament’s going to be great no matter what,” Moser said Wednesday at OU’s Caravan event in Oklahoma City. “I think the tournament, the fan bases, it’s going to be great no matter what.

“As someone who’s played in the tournament and coached in the tournament, it’s going to be awesome. The fan engagement, the games, it’s going to be awesome regardless.”

OU’s had the short end of the stick since Moser’s arrival, being out of the tournament four of his five seasons in Norman. The Sooners were the first team out last season and in 2024 while also being the second team out in 2022.

If this was implemented when Moser arrived at OU, the Sooners would’ve made the tournament at least four times.

This season in particular, the Sooners had an ugly start to conference play, but went on a massive winning streak to nearly sneak into the tournament.

Moser mentioned the heated national discussion about Miami (OH) this season, which went the entire regular season without a loss and was considered a bubble team by the committee.

He said he believes it’s a positive for both the small schools and the most-powerful teams in the big conferences like the SEC, ACC, Big 12 and Big Ten.

“Well, I’ll tell you what. When I was the head coach at Loyola, I would’ve loved it and I still do,” Moser said. “And I’ll tell you why, being the first one out. There was a narrative this year, and I haven’t really been outspoken yet about it because I’ve had my head down in the portal, but there was a narrative about a team that wasn’t in a Power-5 conference that was like a sentimental favorite, and I know that.

“I think for the resume you do in the SEC. The resume you do with some of these conferences, what you have to do night in and night out should be rewarded.”