Gene Smith: Hoops 'talked about, but not the driver' of Big Ten conference expansion
Gene Smith knows a thing or two about college basketball. In his 18 years as Ohio State’s athletic director, and his 38 total years as the head of an athletic department, Smith has spent plenty of time around the sport and helped shape decision making at some of the highest levels.
Given that, Smith understands where the sport fits into the conversation of conference expansion.
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“Basketball is always talked about, but it’s not the driver,” Smith said. “It’s not. Football’s the driver. We’re always conscious of what’s the impact on basketball, but we never really make final decisions that are just because of basketball. Football drives television. That’s really the reality of it, but basketball comes into play because we talk about the scheduling. OK, can we really make this work? At a high level we talk about it, and then we go from there.”
Smith was the chairman of the NCAA Tournament’s selection committee in 2011. It’s a point of pride for the outgoing athletic director that he had a say in putting VCU into the tournament and then watched the Rams, under second-year coach Shaka Smart, make a Cinderella run to the Final Four.
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He also was part of the decision-making process that expanded the March Madness field from 65 to 68 teams. In recent months, discussion about further expanding has increased. This is the result of a January report from the NCAA Division I transformation committee that recommended 25% of teams in sports with at least 200 schools be allowed to compete in championship events.
Gene Smith not in favor of expanding March Madness
That would mean expanding the field from 68 to somewhere around 90 teams for both men’s and women’s basketball, and it’s not something Smith said he would be in favor of.
“I really think the NCAA Tournament’s in good standing,” he said. “I really don’t think they need to do a whole lot to it. You tweak some things operationally here and there, but I’m a big believer in staying at 68. People are talking about expanding to 96. We studied that when I was on the committee, and we’re the ones who took it to 68. I think it oughta stay at that.
“It’s a great tournament. It’s exciting. I just think you don’t mess with something that’s really special right now.”
That also includes ensuring access to the NCAA Tournament for low- and mid-major programs. Smith said the potential for a team like VCU or Florida Atlantic to make a deep tournament run is one of the many ways basketball differentiates itself from football.
“It’s hard to have a Cinderella in football,” Smith said. “We may have that with the 12(-team playoff). It would be a different definition of Cinderella. (A Cinderella run) is like the coolest thing. I think the beauty of a tournament is that. Basketball’s just a different sport. I just think that the tournament is on good stay and we shouldn’t change it.”
Effects of Big Ten’s expansion unknown for hoops
It’s unclear how much the Big Ten men’s basketball schedule for 2024-25 will change with the addition of Washington and Oregon. When the two former Pac-12 teams join the league alongside USC and UCLA, the Big Ten will grow to 18 teams.
How that translates to a 20-game league schedule is unknown, but the Big Ten has already signed television contracts for a conference season of that length. Increasing the number of Big Ten games could prove to be a challenge simply from a paperwork standpoint.
“We haven’t had our call yet on scheduling,” Smith said. “That’s going to be set up for us over the next couple weeks to begin those conversations. I’m not really sure. We have a scheduler in the league that will give us recommendations and advice. They know our principles. I just don’t know at this point.”
One thing that has been discussed is turning trips to play one of the California teams into a sort of double play, reducing the number of times Big Ten teams have to travel to the West Coast.
“That’s already been talked about as something we need to consider, not just for basketball but for all our sports,” Smiths said. “If our women’s soccer team is going out to play UCLA then they should have a day in between and play USC. Those scenarios, our senior women administrators have done a phenomenal job setting up the framework for that. Now with Oregon and Washington coming in we have to reevaluate if that framework still works.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: As Big Ten expands, Ohio State's Gene Smith talks role of basketball
