Welcome to the field of 76. Yes, it’s weird. Yes, it feels unnecessary. And yes, it could benefit Syracuse. The NCAA announced on Thursday that the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments would be expanding from 68 teams to 76 teams. Seven of the eight new spots will go to at-large teams. The remaining spot will be an automatic qualifier for the new-look PAC-12. Theoretically, the spots could go to anyone, but more often than not, they will go to Power 5 (including the Big East here) conference teams. Of the first four teams left out of the 2026 bracket, two came from the SEC and one was from the Big Ten. While Syracuse will unquestionably have to raise its level, this opens the door for them to get into the tournament even if they struggle to play much better than .500 basketball in the ACC. That’s a baseline the Orange have failed to reach the past two seasons.…