Coach: NET System Freezes Out Mid-Majors

George Washington's head coach, Chris Caputo, believes the current NCAA Tournament selection criteria, particularly the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), are unfairly hindering mid-major basketball programs. He asserts that the system, which considers factors like venue, score, and efficiency, effectively 'freezes out' teams from outside the Power 4 conferences, making ambitious upset runs like his former George Mason team's 2006 Final Four appearance increasingly improbable.

Caputo explained that while Power 4 teams benefit from numerous opportunities for high-quality wins within their loaded conference schedules, mid-majors struggle to accumulate the necessary wins or boost their NET ratings. He highlighted that home victories, once valuable for scheduling, now offer little NET advantage. Furthermore, high-major programs and multi-team events are reportedly becoming more reluctant to schedule lower-tier teams, opting instead for easier wins against lower-ranked opponents to improve their metrics.

To address this perceived imbalance, Caputo advocates for expanding the NCAA Tournament. He argues that the current rate of Division I teams advancing to the tournament is lower than in most other professional and collegiate postseasons. While acknowledging concerns about preserving the tournament's exclusivity, he suggests that admitting more teams would still maintain a level of selectivity and potentially lead to more exciting upsets, as history has shown that less-heralded teams can indeed win.