Jake Diebler is in favor of NCAA Tournament expansion, but it might not be for the reasons you’d expect.
Entering his second season as the Ohio State men’s basketball coach, Diebler oversaw a team that essentially came up one win short of making the field of 68. Most national analysts said the Buckeyes finished 2024-25 as one of the first four teams left out, marking a third straight season that saw them watching March Madness from home instead of participating.
This summer, talk of expanding the tournament to 72 or perhaps 76 teams has increased among the sport’s leadership. On July 24, CBS Sports published a story that expansion could happen “sometime this fall,” but it’s growing increasingly unlikely that any change will take place for the 2026 event.
Should it ever take place, Diebler said he’s in favor because it would increase the opportunities for players to experience what he termed “the best sporting event in the world.”
“It’s such an unbelievable experience that I think if you can create that experience for a few more kids, at the end of the day that’s probably what I’d (do),” he said. “Ultimately, if you were like, you have to choose one or the other, I’d say let’s do it and let’s provide the opportunity to be in the best sporting event in the world to a few more kids to experience.”
Expanding to 72 teams, Diebler said, would mean that roughly 60 more basketball players get to participate in March Madness.
Ohio State likely would’ve made it last year with an expanded field, and Diebler said he wants to be careful that whatever changes come, such a feat remains an accomplishment.
“It still needs to be earned, right?” he said. “You can’t have below .500 teams getting in the tournament and stuff like that, but I think there’s an element of making sure that it’s earned and that it’s hard to earn.”
Regardless of what happens, Diebler said he won’t be clamoring for one outcome rather than the other.
“It is a beautiful thing the way it is,” he said. “It was beautiful at 64, it still stayed beautiful at 68. I don’t know what the right number is. I would be for (expansion), ultimately, but I’m not one of those guys that’s going to sit up here and beat a drum of, ‘We need reform.’ ”
In a July 29 update published to ESPN, bracketologist Joe Lunardi projects the Buckeyes as a No. 6 seed in the 68-team 2026 NCAA Tournament.
Ohio State men’s basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
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