Memories of Grambling State University’s NCAA tournament First Four victory in Dayton, Ohio, will be forever etched into the mind of head men’s basketball coach Donte’ Jackson. This year, Grambling earned its first-ever bid to the tournament by winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament championship, a goal seven years in the making for Jackson.
“Playing in the NCAA tournament was an incredible feeling for me, the coaching staff, our players, our alums and our institution,” Jackson told Andscape. “It’s nothing like competing at the highest level and reaching the tournament.”
However in March, Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey, the co-chair of the NCAA Division I Transformation Committee who has previously recommended a tournament expansion, suggested eliminating automatic qualifiers, an idea Michigan State University head men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo agrees is worth consideration. But many other coaches say implementing the proposal would have a negative impact on the tournament participation of mid-major programs – such as those at historically Black colleges and universities.
Currently in Division I basketball, two HBCU athletic conferences, the Southwestern Athletic Conference and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, receive automatic bids to the NCAA tournament. Other mid-major conferences with HBCU members, such as the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) and the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC), also receive automatic bids. In the last 10 years no HBCU has received an at-large bid to the tournament.
In a tournament known for the Power Five and mid-major matchups dubbed David vs. Goliath games, many believe the landscape of college basketball will change if David is no longer allowed to enter the fight.
“That’s the beauty and the magic of March. If you take that away, you’re not going to have 12 [over] 5 upsets, 16 [over] 1 upsets,” said Howard University head men’s basketball coach Kenneth Blakeney, whose team lost its First Four game against Wagner College in this year’s tournament. “The two [mid-major] teams in the Final Four last year, that is the beauty and the magic of what makes March Madness March Madness. There’s so many brackets that get tossed out the window, and that may be the issue, but it’s what makes March special.”
Jackson State University head women’s basketball coach Tomekia Reed will never forget her team’s near-upset of LSU in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in 2022.
“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 draw great viewership as people know we are going to compete with a chance to win,” Reed said. “Having the proper representation in the NCAA tournament helps put a positive spotlight on our culture and on our institution. We get to show that we have great coaches and great players.”
Another postseason tournament, the National Invitation Tournament, eliminated automatic bids for regular-season mid-major champions for the 2024 NIT, and no HBCUs that would have automatically qualified a season ago were selected to participate. The Women’s National Invitational Tournament still allows regular-season champions as qualifiers; two HBCUs were chosen for this year’s postseason tournament.
“Now the NCAA is trying to follow the blueprint and layout of the NIT by eliminating a lot of mid-major basketball teams,” said LeVelle Moton, North Carolina Central University’s head men’s basketball coach. “I couldn’t imagine the NCAA tournament without mid-major schools. whether it’s HBCUs or low majors. In my eyes, I don’t think people want to see another tournament with all Power Five schools.”
Moton has tallied four MEAC tournament championships since taking over the team at his alma mater in 2009. After the Eagles’ first NCAA tournament berth in 2014, Moton recalls then-chancellor Debra Saunders-White telling him that freshman enrollment for the following year was at capacity.
“Our website went through the roof. People were calling saying, ‘This is where [basketball player] Sam Jones went, right?’ It’s been proven that the top teams in football and the top teams in basketball each year, [their] enrollment goes through the windows,” Moton said.
That translates into more student athletic fees, Moton said.
“The economic impact of the tournament for the university, you can’t pay for that type of marketing,” he added. “That is valued at probably $25 million.”
After earning his first NCAA tournament berth as a head coach in 2023, Norfolk State University head women’s basketball coach Larry Vickers saw the tournament appearance open the doors for recruiting. The Spartans lost to South Carolina in the opening round of the tournament but drew praise from Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley.
A couple months later, North Carolina State University transfer Diamond Johnson, a former five-star recruit, committed to playing for the Spartans.
“So many people sent emails from everywhere. ‘Hey, Coach, I never heard of your program, but I enjoy watching y’all play, enjoy your style of play.’ Obviously basketball gives us that opportunity where there’s not, like, a tremendous difference in scholarships and things like that, but I don’t think we would be able to recruit as well right now,” Vickers said.
“We were able to get Anjanae Richardson, who was a top five kid in our state. The freshman said, ‘This HBCU culture is for me, and I want to stay closer to home.’ Then we got a Diamond Johnson. … But if we can’t get into the tournament, every high major team is just going to have 15 incredible players that all wait their turn because everybody wants to play in that moment.”
Tennessee State University head men’s basketball coach Brian Collins went to the NCAA tournament as a player, helping lead Belmont University to its first tournament in 2006. He also participated in a tournament bid as an assistant coach with East Tennessee State University in 2017.
Tennessee State is a member of the OVC, and Collins knows his players will be directly impacted if mid-major bids are eliminated.
“If you take it away, it’s like, what are you playing for then? What are you fighting for? It’s hard to put into words, but when you take that away you’re taking away dreams of student-athletes that have worked as hard,” Collins said. “We would’ve never heard of 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 have never seen these guys on that stage to show you that they’re just as talented as a guy at North Carolina.”
The issue of eliminating autobids also has caught the attention of North Carolina State University head men’s basketball coach Kevin Keatts, whose team made the Final Four of this year’s tournament. Keatts, who previously spent several seasons at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) in the CAA, understands the grind mid-major programs undergo to qualify for the NCAA tournament and the privilege Power Five schools have.
Though the Wolfpack had a conference record below .500, the team won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament and earned a spot in the NCAA tournament. Had Keatts still been at UNCW, that might’ve not earned the selection.
“My time at UNCW I had won 28 games, and if I didn’t win that championship game I probably wasn’t gonna go to the NCAA tournament, and so I had to [win] it,” Keatts said at the Final Four. “So I hope that there’s other opportunities [for mid-majors]. … If we could expand the tournament — and I don’t say expand the tournament a little bit just for the Power Fives to get more teams in — I’d like to give the mid-majors some opportunities, too.”
Retired Hampton University women’s basketball coach David Six led the Pirates to six NCAA tournament berths. Despite advancing to the tournament multiple times, Six has advocated for an alternative option for HBCUs: He thinks the NCAA should create a separate mid-major tournament, similar to the FCS playoffs in football.
“HBCUs have great coaches, great talent,” Six said. “The thing is that schools have to put money into it. They got to put the resources into it, and that’s tough to do. HBCUs, they are valuable and great at what they do, but you know if somebody’s making $175 million on their athletic program there is no way for HBCUs to compete.
“Every once in a while people say, ‘Well, you know we’ve had Cinderellas before,’ but we’ve had [Power Five] winners much more than we’ve had Cinderellas.”
However, given the long, storied history of the NCAA tournament and the national support behind it, other coaches don’t believe a separate tournament would have the same appeal.
“All the brackets are the NCAA tournament. That’s where everybody’s heart is, not only the fans, the coaches, the players, but consumers. It’s everyone. It’s historical,” Moton said. “So I don’t think starting our own will have the same impact financially, economically or just emotionally as this is.”
