{"id":242353,"date":"2026-05-08T06:40:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T06:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/uconns-dan-hurley-speaks-out-in-wake-of-ncaa-tournament-expansion\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T06:40:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T06:40:18","slug":"uconns-dan-hurley-speaks-out-in-wake-of-ncaa-tournament-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/uconns-dan-hurley-speaks-out-in-wake-of-ncaa-tournament-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn&#8217;s Dan Hurley speaks out in wake of NCAA Tournament expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/college_basketball\/players\/dan_hurley\/907604\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dan Hurley<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/colleges\/connecticut_huskies\/65\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UConn Huskies<\/a> didn&#8217;t bring home the national championship this past season, but they did make it to the final game for the third time in the past four years, which says a lot. So, when Hurley makes a comment about NCAA policies, people listen, as they should.<\/p>\n<p>Even though the Michigan Wolverines <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/college_basketball\/articles\/michigan_caps_historic_season_with_national_championship_win_over_uconn\/s1_17391_43697114\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">won the national championship<\/a>, UConn had a strong run during the NCAA Tournament, including beating out No. 1 seed Duke in the Elite Eight.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, the NCAA confirmed that it will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/college_basketball\/articles\/ncaa_tournament_expansion_a_sacrifice_mid_majors_forced_to_make_in_rev_share_era\/s1_13132_43817490\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">officially expand the men&#8217;s and women&#8217;s tournament fields<\/a> from 68 to 76 teams starting in 2027. So, what does Hurley think of the change?<\/p>\n<p>Well, Hurley was quick to respond. During an appearance on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xs3UeLTXjlM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;The Field of 68&#8221; podcast<\/a> on Thursday, he gave his view on the change. He doesn&#8217;t sound too happy about it.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cI loved the exclusivity of it,&#8221; he said on the show. &#8220;I loved the fact that it was a hard tournament to qualify for. I think the best sporting events you actually have to have a difficulty qualifying for&#8230; So yeah, I don&#8217;t like it from that standpoint.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2>Dan Hurley comments on March Madness expansion<\/h2>\n<p>With the new format, there are more spaces for teams, and that means more matchups. In place of the First Four games, will be 12 games during the &#8220;March Madness Opening Round.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Even though Hurley will miss the exclusive nature of March Madness, he&#8217;s warming up to the idea of the new rules.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m like 85 percent coming around to it,&#8221; he added. &#8220;As long as it doesn&#8217;t make it tougher for the teams that earn the higher seeds,\u201d he explained, adding, &#8220;This tournament&#8217;s hard enough to win six games without something going bad.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The NCAA is standing by its decision. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncaa.org\/news\/2026\/5\/7\/media-center-ncaa-reveals-new-76-team-bracket-for-di-mens-and-womens-basketball-championships.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">In a statement<\/a>, Tim Sands, chair of the Division I board of directors and the president at Virginia Tech, called the move &#8220;the right decision for the student-athletes and programs that will now have access to the greatest events in college sports.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added, &#8220;As NCAA leaders, we are especially excited to provide additional, highly competitive games for fans who look forward to March Madness every year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n    !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n    {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n    n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n    if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n    n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n    t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n    s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n    'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n    fbq('init', '1324276914788316');\n    fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/college_basketball\/articles\/uconns_dan_hurley_speaks_out_in_wake_of_ncaa_tournament_expansion\/s1_13132_43818011\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dan Hurley and the UConn Huskies didn&#8217;t bring home the national championship this past season, but they did make it to the final game for the third time in the past four years, which says a lot. So, when Hurley makes a comment about NCAA policies, people listen, as they should. Even though the Michigan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":242354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6806],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-242353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gossip"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}