As the NCAA considers expanding March Madness, there’s a bigger question: Who will be in charge of it?

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – While a modest expansion of the NCAA Basketball Tournament appears to be on the horizon, a more radical change looms over the association and the crown jewel of the conference this week is who will be in charge of college sports in general and March Madness in particular. Selection.

With college sports in the midst of massive changes — and awaiting final approval from a federal judge on an antitrust lawsuit settlement that will pave the way for billions of dollars in direct payments from schools to athletes — a new governance structure is needed to accommodate more college sports. The professional portions of NCAA membership.

proposal at an early stage, It was first reported by Yahoo! Sportsof the so-called Power 4 conferences — the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 — suggests the solution is to hand more control to that group, including running the NCAA tournaments.

“Well, we were given independence on very specific issues. “It was negotiated back, and I think we used it well,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said Wednesday as he made the long, winding walk through the Opryland Convention Center from the Division I Council meeting to the NCAA work session. “We have not actively used (autonomy) for some time and believe it should be extended.”

Sankey downplayed the idea that the Power 4 was looking to take control of the administration and structure of tournament events — the one function the NCAA provides that has not been severely diminished in recent years, and a responsibility that in many ways has an increasingly tense connection.

“There are a lot more issues at hand than just championships,” Sankey said.

In 2014, the NCAA voted to grant autonomy to the then-Power 5, which included the Pac-12 at the time. Self-rule allowed those conferences to establish lenient rules in certain areas without the approval of the rest of Division I (which includes 28 conferences and more than 280 schools). The first thing the Power 5 group did was pass a rule allowing schools to increase the value of their athletic scholarships by a few thousand dollars in most cases for the cost of attendance. This has been a controversial issue within the NCAA for a while, as smaller schools feared being put at a competitive disadvantage by schools flexing their financial muscle.

Now, if the House v. With final approval in April by the NCAA, schools will be allowed to spend up to $20.5 million starting next year on athlete compensation. The difference between the wealthiest class of Division I schools and the rest has never been more stark.

With 1,100 member schools across three divisions, the NCAA needs to change the way it governs, and soon. P4’s proposal to impose more control is one of several options.

“We’ve been getting a bunch of requests from all kinds of people we’ve asked from, okay?” NCAA President Charlie Baker said after his State of the Association address on Tuesday. “From my own perspective, and I’ve said this publicly, I think there are a lot of things in the NCAA that need to be fixed. It’s hard to convince me that the biggest problem we have is that we’re not doing a good job of running tournaments. I actually think that’s Something we are good at.”

The NCAA has formed a working group to sort through various proposals and ideas for a new administrative structure, with the idea of ​​having something new by next academic year.

The governance of college sports is not a topic that attracts many fans, until it affects the competition itself. This catches everyone’s attention.

“It kind of caught me by surprise,” Big East commissioner Val Ackerman said of the Power 4 running Division I national championships. “What the NCAA is about, more than anything else, is running tournaments. That’s their primary job is to run 90 tournaments. The only thing they can’t run is the CFP.”

“So, I need to hear more about the idea of ​​capturing the NCAA championships.”

The idea of ​​handing control of the national championships to P4 is particularly troubling for the rest of Division I because access to those championships, and the multi-million dollar revenues that come with them, are often the lifeblood of their programs.

Dan Gavitt, NCAA vice president of basketball, said who runs the tournament is not as much of a concern as how it is run.

“If there are things that as a result of a reorganization, a House settlement, a change in governance structure, that are needs that we need to look at to meet members, including (Home Rule 4), but including others, we have to be open to that.” “. How do we develop that? “And if this is the structure of the committee, if this is what the tournaments look like, and if this is the revenue distribution around some of the things that they are going to make decisions on, then I think we have to be open about that.”

On the subject of expanding the basketball tournament, Gavitt said discussions are continuing with three possible outcomes: adding four teams to the current bracket of 68 teams, adding eight teams, or no expansion.

“I would say that expanding the tournament is not a given,” Gavitt said.

There are still complications, most notably higher costs if more teams are added to the category. Gavitt declined to put a timeline on a decision, but acknowledged that having about a year to implement the changes would be helpful. The NCAA would have to expand the women’s basketball tournament by any number that expands the men’s bracket.

As for the new NCAA governance structure, that should be in place before the ball is kicked or turned over for the 2025-2026 sports seasons.

Baylor President Linda Livingston, whose school is part of the Big 12, said Tuesday that with investments from Power 4 schools on the rise, another iteration of charter is likely due. This doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the big first division or a Power 4 split.

“I think we have a really good opportunity now that everyone is certain that we need to rethink the decision-making model, the management model in Division I,” she said. “Now the hard work we have to roll up our sleeves is to figure out what is in the best interest of the Home Rule Conferences certainly, but also other institutions outside of the Home Rule Conferences.”

(Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)