This is an article version of the CBS Sports HQ AM Newsletter, the ultimate guide to every day in sports. You can sign up to get it in your inbox every weekday morning here.
🏀 Good morning to all but especially to …
THE NCAA TOURNAMENT AND COLLEGE BASKETBALL FANS
The 68-team NCAA Tournament format isn’t going anywhere … for now. The Division I men’s and women’s basketball committees decided Monday to keep the field size as is for the 2026 tournaments, though expansion still looms.
The committees met in July and did not come to a conclusion regarding expansion.Shortly thereafter, NCAA president Charlie Baker said expansion this season would therefore be unlikely, though a decision for 2027 and beyond could be coming this fall.Indeed, Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, said discussions will continue about expanding to 72 or 76 “in advance of the 2027 championships.”
I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but I’m anti-expansion. Matt Norlander has laid out the reasons and the data about why 68 is the right size. For at least one more year, it’s staying that way.
😁 Honorable mentions
🏈 And not such a good morning for …
Imagn Images
MICAH PARSONS, JERRY JONES AND THE DALLAS COWBOYS
The Micah Parsons trade request is now four days old, and somehow it seems that with each passing day Jerry Jones digs himself a deeper hole, most recently saying “This is really nothing new, at all, with Micah” in an interview published Monday.
Technically, he’s right. This is nothing new. (And here’s the timeline for how we got here.) But this isn’t something he should be happy about, or something that should reassure Cowboys fans. Dallas is constantly behind the eight ball when it comes to contract extensions for their biggest stars — whether…
..
