Coach K leads ACC coaches in proposing all-inclusive NCAA tourney

The 15 ACC men's basketball coaches support a proposal for the 2021 NCAA Tournament being open to every Division I program in the country.

"In the ACC, we believe in the importance of celebrating our game," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a statement from his program. "There is no better way to do that than involving every team in the most prestigious basketball tournament on the planet."

Krzyzewski cited the health and safety of the players, the incentive of ensuring that there would be games, and the need for unification across the sport as the three main factors that influenced the proposal.

The most recent configuration of the annual March spectacle features 68 teams, including automatic bids for the champions of the 32 Division I conferences plus 36 at-large entrants. There are over 350 Division I men's basketball teams heading into the 2020-21 academic year, of which 346 would be eligible for the tournament, notes Stadium's Jeff Goodman.

"This is a unique time, and it's time to do something different," Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim told Goodman.