George Washington coach calls for expansion of NCAA tournament: ‘The solution is in’

Nineteen years ago, Chris Caputo was a 26-year-old assistant coach on the George Mason basketball team that became the second No. 11 seed in NCAA history to reach the Final Four.

Now, as head coach at George Washington, Caputo says this type of upset is becoming increasingly difficult.

Caputo called for the tournament to be expanded on Wednesday after George Washington’s 89-52 victory over UMBC. The fourth-year coach, whose team is the No. 1 Atlantic 10 team in the KenPom ratings, said it is becoming increasingly difficult for mid-major programs to schedule games against major opponents.

“It’s just so challenging in this landscape. The solution is within. The NET. We all know what it is. You can’t manipulate it,” Caputo said. “They’ve basically moved the goalposts to what it takes to get in for teams outside of the power leagues. They just freeze you out.”

“The Fix Is In” – Coach Caputo on Big Schools Freezing the A10 in MTEs, the Challenges of the NET, and Why He’s for Tournament Expansion pic.twitter.com/hlaeICi9SJ

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Caputo complained about the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) system, which the NCAA Tournament committee uses to divide teams into four tiers. The NET was created before the 2018-2019 season and weighs data such as location, score, efficiency and other metrics.

“It seems like a very difficult puzzle for the non-Power 4 teams and 10 years ago it wasn’t that difficult,” Caputo said.

For Power 4 teams, conference play is packed with opportunities to earn Quad 1 and 2 wins. On the other hand, it is difficult for mid-majors to get high-quality wins or increase their NET rating during conference play.

Home wins are also devalued in the NET system. Caputo noted that for mid-majors, scheduling non-conference home-and-homes once had “tremendous value” but now contributes little to a team’s NET rating.

Planning then becomes critical for teams with March Madness aspirations. For years, low-major schools filled their schedules with tough opponents, hoping to improve their pedigree. Last season, the South Dakota State women’s team played Creighton, Duke, Georgia Tech, Oregon and Texas in non-conference games.

But big teams – and multi-team events (MTEs) – are more reluctant to schedule low-major opponents, Caputo said. Rather than risk competitive matchups against quality mid-majors, several Power 4 teams have turned to scheduling NET 300-level opponents that they can easily blow out to boost their stats, Caputo said.

“The opportunities in the world of MTEs have evaporated,” Caputo said. “And you don’t get the same value if you try to schedule teams with great records because you can’t beat those teams by 40 points. So the stats are almost worthless.”

Essentially, that dynamic makes it harder for non-Power 4 conferences to send multiple teams to the NCAA tournament. Caputo cited last season’s VCU squad as an example: The Atlantic 10 feared that if the Rams, who had a 25-6 record entering the A-10 tournament, had not won it, they might not have received an at-large bid.

Caputo said there is a simple solution: add more bids to the tournament. Only 19 percent of Division I teams advance to the NCAA Tournament, a lower percentage than most other college and pro postseasons, which typically send about 25 percent of their teams to the postseason.

While Caputo admits there’s a chance Power 4 schools will simply receive more bids, he hopes there will be room for more mid-majors.

“There are people crying that we shouldn’t add (more teams),” Caputo said. “It should still be exclusive, but I would say 75 percent of the people not in the tournament still make it exclusive.”

Caputo thinks the trends in non-conference scheduling will continue. “Blue Bloods” will schedule more home-and-home series against elite opponents, while mid-majors will have to find creative ways to play against competitive opponents.

The 45-year-old is aware of the nostalgia that comes with the NCAA tournament. He called it the second best sporting event in the world, after the Super Bowl. But for people hesitant to see March Madness change, Caputo said the tournament — and college athletics — is always adapting. And he thinks more upsets could arise if there are more opportunities for mid-majors.

“You can’t say, ‘Well, if we let more teams in, they’re not going to win.’ History has said otherwise,” Caputo said.