Summit League & NCAA Tourney expansion: Worth the "watering down" of March Madness? It's Thirsty Thursday from the Orion Pub with Trent Singer

Fool's gold for mid-major teams?   That is certainly how some college basketball fans and experts see the recently-announced NCAA Tournament expansion to 76 teams in both men's and women's basketball.    While the four new "play-in games" potentially offer a second school from a mid-major conference like the Summit League to take part in "The Big Dance," some view those games as battles for the right to be bludgeoned by a No. 1 or No. 2 seed about 48 hours or less later is the round of 64.   It's hard to argue, considering the recent history of mid-major teams like those from the Summit since 2021, when Oral Roberts reached the Sweet 16. Since then, the enforcement of NIL (paying players without a cap) has caused most of the best mid-major players to leave for more lucrative situations at larger schools, resulting in a competitive imbalance that has led to more "chalk" in "Power Five" versus mid-major matchups in the tourney. Summit League commissioner Josh Fenton didn't dispute that when he joined The Nate Brown Show in Rapid City on Wednesday.   But Fenton disputed the notion that expansion won't boost leagues like his. For one, any NCAA Tournament win would mean more money for all Summit League schools.  Given the format of the expanded "play-in" round, a Summit League team seeded 15th or 16th would play a team with the same seed. Hence, this is a far more winnable game than the matchup against a No. 1 or No. 2 seed that many Summit champions have faced in recent years. A win in that "play-in" round would still mean facing a top-two seed in the round of 64, but the financial windfall counts the same for each win.   "The tournament has become, especially for (mid-majors) very challenging in the opening round," Fenton said. "If you have a chance, now, in more of a 50/50 game in the (play-in) round, certainly, to win a unit for the conference. That's a pretty signficant opportunity for the conference. That would go a long way for the conference and the member institutions that are certainly in need of some financial resources."   In 2026, each conference received $2,000,000 for every game a member institution won in the NCAA Tournament, with payments spread out over six years. That's about $350,000 per year for the league, which is then dispersed to each school. For every NCAA women's tourney win, the winning team's conference received over $1,000,000, which equates to over $190,000 payments to the conference for six years.    North Dakota State's women were officially one of the "first four out" teams that barely missed the NCAA Tourney field in March. They would have played in March Madness in the new field of 76.   So, this is real gold financially. But in terms of elevating mid-major teams' stature in the billion-dollar event? Perhaps fools gold. How do the Happy Hour host and Sioux Falls Live sportswriter Trent Singer see it? It's the A-topic of the latest "Thirsty Thursday" from the Orion Pub in downtown Minneapolis over cold, refreshing domestic light beer.   The rest of the show includes conversation about the Sioux Falls Stampede's first appearance in the Clark Cup Finals in seven years — when The Herd won its third USHL title — and the excitement a title hunt ignites in both the PREMIER Center and around town.