Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti favors ‘straight seeding’ for expanded March Madness

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti hasn’t exactly made himself a popular figure among college sports traditionalists.

Petitti made waves earlier this year by advocating for a College Football Playoff format that would allocate 13 automatic bids in a hypothetical 16-team format, rather than simply awarding one automatic bid to each power conference winner, with an additional slot for the Group of 5.

Now, the commissioner is proposing another change that might rankle fans. According to a report by Eric Fisher in Front Office Sports, Petitti is proposing a “straight-seeding model” that would serve to benefit his conference, and other power conference teams, in an expanded March Madness format.

The NCAA is currently mulling a move to a 76-team NCAA Tournament format for as soon as 2027. The expanded field would add four additional play-in games for a spot in the round-of-64. Petitti’s proposed model would see at-large teams avoid participation in those play-in games, instead allocating those spots to the 12 lowest-ranked teams to qualify for the tournament. In other words, those play-in games would be populated entirely by mid-major and low-major teams that earned automatic berths by winning their conference tournament.

“I think part of the motivation for the NCAA is a recognition with these larger conferences, you’re going to force teams closer to .500 records in their conferences,” Petitti said, per Front Office Sports. “What access do they have? I think, overall, with the system we have now with the large conferences, more access is better.”

Of course, moving to a straight-seeding model would reward middle-of-the-road power conference teams at the expense of mid-major and low-major teams, who would have to win a play-in game before getting into the full field. The charm of March Madness, especially the first weekend, is predicated on Cinderellas. A straight-seeding model would see fewer possible Cinderella teams in the field.

Petitti does have an economic argument in his favor, however. Power conference teams tend to attract more viewers than Cinderella schools, even if upsets are a major reason why people love March Madness. More tournament berths for power conference schools could very well translate to higher viewership.

Still, it’s hard to imagine a move to straight-seeding would go over well with fans. Then again, neither will a move to expand the tournament in the first place.