Wojcik In Favor of Expanding NCAA Tournament

Originally Published: Dec 16, 2009 6:30 PM CDT

Bobby Lewis
Oklahoma Sports Reporter

TULSA, Oklahoma – Every year, revisions are considered for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The hot-button issue usually revolves around expanding the tournament’s field.

Small conference schools have complained about getting an unfair shot at a national title run. In recent days, the topic of expanding the annual March Madness tournament from its current 64-team format to a 96-team bracket have picked up steam.

Count Tulsa head coach Doug Wojcik as one of the coaches around the country in favor of increasing the field.

“When you have 347 Division I schools,” said TU’s fifth-year coach, “I’m for guys having the opportunity.”

Wojcik argued his case from an outside-looking-in perspective, saying that teams like his Golden Hurricane deserve equal credit for having a successful season that a school from a bigger conference might receive. He wouldn’t mind seeing the tournament jump to 96 or even 128 teams.

“If you went to 96, great,” said Wojcik. "If you went to 128, you'd definitely have everybody that would be potentially a team that has potential to be in the tournament."

The Golden Hurricane has started this season 7-1, with double-digit wins over Oklahoma State, South Alabama and Arkansas Little-Rock. With matchups with two Big 12 schools ahead this week, their resume speaks for itself, but Wojcik still hopes for a better shot.

“It helps schools like Tulsa, Creighton and Xavier,” said Wojcik. “There’re a lot of teams that are deserving between 50 in the RPI and 75, 80.”

Wojcik and TU host Jackson State on December 19th at 7 p.m.