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photo: GETTY IMAGES (BUTLER BULLDOGS & LSU TIGERS)
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Start the Madness?
By DARREN EVERSON The NCAA is in the very early stages of exploring making changes to its men’s basketball tournament. One idea that’s been batted around: expanding it to 96 teams. Here’s a simple suggestion: Stop exploring. Start doing. Expanding the 65-team tournament would give more quality teams a chance to prove themselves and correct the shamefully low percentage of bids given to lesser-known “mid-major” teams. It might also create enough of a supply of games to allow a portion of the tournament to be shown on cable. (Fans now can’t see every game in full because CBS doesn’t broadcast every game nationally.) ‘THE RIVETING PART’ Most important of all, adding an extra round or stage to the tournament would mean more of what fans love most: the early rounds, the unpredictable festival of games that create wild excitement all across the country. “What do you lose?” says Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who has spoken out in favor of expansion. “It’s an easy decision.” The NCAA says it has spoken informally to networks about changing the tournament. It says there is no definitive model for an expanded tournament, but there are several possibilities. One commonly cited format is a 96-team system that would create an additional round. Under this structure, the top 32 teams in the bracket would get first-round byes while the weaker seeds will fight it out for the right to advance to play them. “The early rounds are the riveting part of the tournament,” says Doug Elgin, the commissioner of the Missouri Valley Conference. “If we had an expansion, it would deepen the tournament in the middle. You’re going to see much more balance and maybe more upsets in these first- and second-round games.” Mr. Elgin once opposed expansion but changed his mind after seeing strong teams from non-major conferences (like his) repeatedly passed over. Some opponents of expansion say the danger is that it will become a giveaway to mediocre teams in the six major conferences—the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC. Those conferences already command a huge and growing share of the bids that the selection committee awards. They won 30 of 34 at-large bids this past season, up from 25 out of 34 in 2005. Northwestern coach Bill Carmody, whose team has never appeared in the NCAAs, says expansion would make each game a little less meaningful. “If you expand it this much, it seems like you’d dilute it a little bit.” One of the factors driving talk of expansion, he says, is job security for coaches. The NCAA men’s tournament has basically been in its present format since 1985. One additional berth was added in 2001 via a play-in game where two teams play for the final spot in the bracket. But while the tournament has stayed essentially the same size, college basketball has grown—from 282 Division I teams in 1985 to 334 today. While many of the newest teams aren’t exactly championship-caliber, the fact remains that this sport is relatively stingy with postseason play. More than half of all major college-football programs get to go to a bowl game. The NBA and NHL both permit more than half of their teams (53%) into their playoffs, while the NFL allows 37.5% and baseball 26.7%. For the NCAA men’s tournament, the figure is 19.5%. ‘TOO MUCH FOR ONE NETWORK’ The NCAA has the right to opt out of its 11-year, $6 billion contract with CBS at the end of this season, which is driving talk of expansion. TV experts say that the value in expanding the tournament is mainly in the ability to sell it to more than one network. “They could legitimately bring in two networks, saying it’s too much for one network,” says Rick Gentile, a former executive producer at CBS Sports. “If you get two networks involved, they’ll both pay a premium to be a part of it.” For the smaller schools and conferences, the revenue the tournament can generate for schools is no minor issue—especially as some schools drop expensive sports like football. There’s even a feeling in some corners that 96 teams isn’t enough. “I think we should expand even more,” says Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose team narrowly missed the NCAA tournament last season and lost to Penn State in the final of the consolation National Invitation Tournament. “Go up to 128,” he says. “There’s that many good teams, and it gives everybody one more game.” “To everyone who says, ‘What about a missed class?’—trust me, those players would trade a day of class for a chance to play in this tournament any day,” Mr. Drew says.
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