NCAA men's basketball recommends 68-team tournament

[Tommy Lawson]

Thankfully, a 96 team tournament looks to be out in the near future. It's going to be a 68 team tournament, with 4 play-in games instead of 1, which make sense since the addition of the Great West auto-qualifier would have required a minimum of 66 teams. I would prefer the play-in games to actually be the "last at-large teams in" on the 12 seed line, rather than what they do now.

As for coverage, it's going to be shared between CBS and the Turner cable networks, TBS, TNT, and truTV. We could see Conan promoting the NCAA tournament next year on TBS. Eventually, the Final Four and championship games will be on cable, but for now, they will remain on CBS.

Sportingnews.com has the details (http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting_blog/entry/view/63607/cbs/turner-keep-ncaa-rights;-tourney-expansion-coming-next-year).

[bigddan11]

Thankfully, a 96 team tournament looks to be out in the near future. It's going to be a 68 team tournament, with 4 play-in games instead of 1, which make sense since the addition of the Great West auto-qualifier would have required a minimum of 66 teams. I would prefer the play-in games to actually be the "last at-large teams in" on the 12 seed line, rather than what they do now.

As for coverage, it's going to be shared between CBS and the Turner cable networks, TBS, TNT, and truTV. We could see Conan promoting the NCAA tournament next year on TBS. Eventually, the Final Four and championship games will be on cable, but for now, they will remain on CBS.

Sportingnews.com has the details (http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting_blog/entry/view/63607/cbs/turner-keep-ncaa-rights;-tourney-expansion-coming-next-year).
truTV? Why on Earth are they going with truTV? The good news is this means the NIT, CBI, and CiT won't be cancelled. I have said from the start if they were going to expand let it only be to 68. Also, please note that it isn't called a play-in game. It is called the Opening Round, and after that is the First Round.

So with this it looks like the first and second round games will have all the games aired on TV, with one game on each station for the first two rounds. The regional semi's and finals will rotate between CBS and TBS, and the Semi-finals and National Championship will also rotate between CBS (Odd years starting in 2015) and TBS (even years starting in 2016). I find it ironic, yet understanding, that they are going with TBS, which is probably so they don't interfere with TNT's NBA coverage. The contract will go through 2024.

For those of us who were worried about March Madness on Demand, it will continue to be run through CBSSports.com and NCAA.com. Turner will also be creating a player that will have HD capabilities so they can stream the games they are airing. I wsonder what this means for the regular season though. Will we be seeing NCAA games on TBS, TNT, and truTV during the regular season. I also wonder how many conferences will be looking to leave ESPN and move to one of the Turner's for their conference championships. Something tells me the MWC will stick with their current MTN., CBS College, Versus agreement.

[Memphis Bleek]

truTV? Why on Earth are they going with truTV? The good news is this means the NIT, CBI, and CiT won't be cancelled. I have said from the start if they were going to expand let it only be to 68. Also, please note that it isn't called a play-in game. It is called the Opening Round, and after that is the First Round.


Turner didn't have any better options. The alternatives were CNN, HLN, Cartoon Network, Boomerang or TCM. truTV's lineup is the least important of all of these networks, and it's available in more home than Boomerang.

[bigddan11]

It is now official. The NCAA Board of Directors approved the NCAA Tournament Expansion to 68 teams yesterday. From the AP:

The NCAA (http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Sports+Leagues/NCAA/National+Collegiate+Athletic+Association)'s Board of Directors approved an expanded men's basketball tournament Thursday, passing a proposal that will take the field from 65 teams to 68 next season.

Still to be determined: How the format will work.

The board is hoping that by adding three opening-round games to the one already played, it will eliminate the stigma of a what outsiders have dubbed the tourney's "play-in" game.Please note that they said the format is being discussed. One of the possibilities being discussed- the last four teams in will play the opening round game instead of the Conference Champions. Again from AP.com.


Thanks to the new 14-year, $10.8 billion television package with CBS and Turner Broadcasting, announced last week, fans will be able to choose which games they want to watch. It will be the first time that every game will be televised live nationally.

And now the tourney will have three more teams competing fewer than most people were expecting.

Four weeks ago during the Final Four (http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Events+and+Awards/Sports/NCAA+Men%27s+Division+I+Basketball+Championship) in Indianapolis, NCAA officials discussed the possibility of expanding to 80 or 96 teams, proposals that were rejected after television executives said additional games would not affect their bids for broadcast rights and the public complained that so many more teams would water down the competition.

While the NCAA kept the ability to expand at will, it went with the much more modest 68-team format that likely means three more at-large bids.

"Expanding to 68 teams gave us an opportunity to involve more teams in the championship, and in doing that, we were able to enhance the experience of the opening-round game," said Clemson president James Barker, the committee chairman. "Expansion enables us to give more exposure to the universities and provide more opportunities for student-athletes."

Committee members were not immediately available to answer questions on a day they were also scheduled to discuss legislative proposals regarding the use of athletes' names, images and likenesses in commercial products, concussions and tougher academic standards for junior college transfers.

But the top of the agenda was the NCAA's marquee event.

"We will spend the next two months studying various options and garnering feedback from the membership in an effort to finalize a format for the four opening-round games that makes the most sense for everyone involved," UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero, the outgoing selection committee chairman.

Guerrero also chairs the Division I men's basketball committee, which must approve format changes.
I find it ironic that they are saying it will be three more at-large teams. Not so fast AP. What the expansion of the tourney does is at best give two more teams an at-large bid, because the Big West Conference will likely have their conference champion given a bid no matter what happens now, even though their conference champion won't get an automatic bid until 2020. Truthfully the expansion means the NCAA can give them an automatic bid now, something they deserve since basically all the Big West Conference members were Independent Schools or newly promoted Division 1 Schools that never got accepted in the first place.

[Burgundy Ranger]

Is this some new development with the Big West? They've had an auto-bid for AGES. UCSB got it this year.

Also, I pray these four opening games are among the last at-large teams playing for 12 seeds. If it's a four-pack of UALR-Winthrop games, I'll gag. Watching paint dry would be more appealing.

[bigddan11]

Is this some new development with the Big West? They've had an auto-bid for AGES. UCSB got it this year.

Also, I pray these four opening games are among the last at-large teams playing for 12 seeds. If it's a four-pack of UALR-Winthrop games, I'll gag. Watching paint dry would be more appealing.
I said it incorrectly. I'm referring to the Great West (South Dakota, Houston Baptist, Utah Valley, North Dakota, NJIT, Chicago State, and Texas-Pan American).

[Burgundy Ranger]

I said it incorrectly. I'm referring to the Great West (South Dakota, Houston Baptist, Utah Valley, North Dakota, NJIT, Chicago State, and Texas-Pan American).
Ahhh. Gotcha. But what in the Sam Hill is a team from New Jersey doing in the Great West? ;) I know -- it's like Denver U being in the Sun Belt.

[bigddan11]

Ahhh. Gotcha. But what in the Sam Hill is a team from New Jersey doing in the Great West? ;) I know -- it's like Denver U being in the Sun Belt.
The Great West was originally a football only conference. It began in 2004 with Cal Poly, UC Davis, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, South Dakota State, and Southern Utah. Eventually Northern Colorado (Big Sky) North Dakota State (Missouri Valley), and South Dakota State (Missouri Valley) left for their other conferences in football leaving the Great West with 3 teams.

In 2008 the Great West decided to revamp their image by expanding to other sports. As a result, they sent an invitation out to schools to join this conference. Southern Utah (Summit), Cal Poly (Big West), and UC Davis (Big West) remained for football while 7 other schools (the ones I mentioned above) joined the conference full time for all sports their schools allow. Only two of them have football programs- North and South Dakota. There was also a rumor that a conference must comprise at least 5 teams, meaning the Great West was in danger of being shut down as a conference.

For the 2009-10 season and later years the Great West has added associate members. Delaware State (MEAC), Howard (MEAC), and South Carolina State (MEAC) have been added for women's soccer. This has allowed them to have two divisions of four teams- an Eastern Division (Delaware State, Howard, South Carolina State, and NJIT) and a Western Division (North Dakota, South Dakota, Houston Baptist, and Utah Valley).

Northern Colorado (Big Sky) has returned to the Great West as an associate member for baseball. NYIT (Division 2 in the ECC) made the move from being an Independent in Division 1 baseball to the Great West also as an associate member, giving the conference 8 teams during baseball season (South Dakota doesn't have baseball).

For Men's Golf the conference has associate members in Binghamton (America East), Hartford (Ivy), Northern Colorado (Big Sky), Sacramento State (Big Sky), and Weber State (Big Sky).

Finally Seattle U. (Independent) also participates in the Great West's cross country and track and field programs.

The name of the conference also confuses people. When you hear the Great West, typically most people think about the Western US. The name of the conference though refers to the Great Western Hemisphere, as in all the US, Canada, and even Mexico. Last time I checked New Jersey was part of that Great Western Hemisphere.

All this information, except for the part about the Western Hemisphere, which I just said because if you think of it as the Eastern and Western Hemisphere's of the world it makes more sense, comes from their athletic web site or the individual schools web sites.

http://www.greatwestconference.org/about-gwfc/gwfc-about-gwfc.html

I should point out that while the Great West does list softball under their listings, the schools are all a part of another division and only face each other before their regular season begins and for the Great West Tournament.

[TMC1982]

CBS probably still has some bad memories over the time that they showed Major League Baseball back in the early '90s (they lost $500 million over a four year period).

CBS considered paying ESPN for the NCAA tourney (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/sports/ncaabasketball/05cbs.html)
Last year, CBS was so afraid of losing money over the basketball tournament that there were talks to hand over the 2010 and 2013 tourneys to ESPN, for a price.