Enjoy Selection Sunday - It may never be the same

[SandraC]

It looks like almost a certainty that the tournament is going to move to 96 teams next year, which will take a lot of the aura and the romance out of Selection Sunday. Virtually every team from the big conferences and any mid-major worth mentioning are going to know they're in the tournament even before conference play starts in January.

North Carolina and UConn having crappy seasons by their standards? Doesn't matter, they're in the top 96. St. Mary's and Gonzaga duking it out in the West Coast Conference? Both made the tournament a long time ago, and they'll take Portland too while they're at it.

To illustrate how bad it'll be...St. John's would make a 96 team tournament!

Heck, even football schools like Marshall would make a 96 team tournament. The regular season will lose a lot of it's meaning.

So cruel, in football we don't get enough teams in the playoff, only two, and in basketball we get way too many. Isn't there a happy medium, Goldilocks?


Sandra

 

[cosmo_kramer]

Here's an interesting read on the business side of the tournament, detailing the obvious greed on the part of the NCAA:

The timing is such that the NCAA will have to make some definitive decision about the tournament's future within the next five months -- and there are numerous reasons some form of expansion seems increasingly likely.

The NCAA is in the eighth year of an 11-year, $6 billion contract with CBS for the rights to March Madness. The deal accounts for more than 90 percent of the organization's annual revenue, which is used in large part to stage its other 87 championship events.

The CBS deal includes an extremely rare clause that allows the NCAA to opt out of the final three years (2011-'13) -- with no obligation to CBS -- if it does so by July 31. The organization can openly solicit offers from other entities, which is exactly what it's doing in gauging networks' interest in a potentially expanded format.

NCAA tournament expansion beginning to seem increasingly likely - Stewart Mandel - SI.com

 

[SandraC]

There is also a very good chance beginning next year the tournament will move to ESPN/ABC.


Sandra

 

[HD MM]

oh just great! Good grief. Leave it how it is! I like CBS's coverage and the amount of teams they have now is just fine.

 

[hancox]

The combo of ESPN and a 96 team tourney will kill the golden goose, and likely mean that the NCAA will lose its grip on I-A football. Mark it down.

 

[SandraC]

The funny thing is, after Dick Vitale has been pining all these years for the tournament...Bob Knight has now replaced him as lead analyst just as ESPN is about to get the tournament back.

That has to hurt.


Sandra

 

[anders5189]

I don't think it's a forgone conclusion that the tournament goes to 96 teams. I think this is just a lot of BS that sportswriters with no better ideas for a story are putting out there, like all the rumors of an NFL team going to London. The NCAA does have to make a decision about their TV contract and they are exploring some different ideas, but they'd be crazy to expand to 96 teams. Maybe they'll add some play in games and go to 68, but that's about it.

 

[SandraC]

I don't think it's a forgone conclusion that the tournament goes to 96 teams. I think this is just a lot of BS that sportswriters with no better ideas for a story are putting out there, like all the rumors of an NFL team going to London. The NCAA does have to make a decision about their TV contract and they are exploring some different ideas, but they'd be crazy to expand to 96 teams. Maybe they'll add some play in games and go to 68, but that's about it.

I hope you're right Anders, but I seriously doubt it. Does not sound like sportswriter fantasy.


Sandra

 

[Paul Wozniak]

Say goodbye to the NIT. If they expand to 96, what would be the point of the NIT? Oh, wait a minute, there's no point to it now.

 

[SandraC]

Say goodbye to the NIT. If they expand to 96, what would be the point of the NIT? Oh, wait a minute, there's no point to it now.

Actually, this is the whole point...besides money, which is always a point.

The NCAA bought the NIT with the goal of disbanding it. That leaves 32 teams who played on, not playing on anymore. Now they want those 32 teams to play in the NCAA tournament instead.


Sandra

 

[SamCdbs]

I have not seen one poster on any board, or any pundit in any media, that thinks this is a good idea.

This just cheapens the tournament to the point that the regular season is meaningless. Why should a major conference (other than for the money) even play a conference tournament?

What the NCAA need to do is, as it has in football, develop standards to reduce the increasing number of Division II calibre schools that created joke leagues, and it needs to get people on the committee that have the courage to understand that finishing 8th or 9th in a league, no matter the supposed quality of that league, just makes you a loser.

 

[HD MM]

I have not seen one poster on any board, or any pundit in any media, that thinks this is a good idea.

This just cheapens the tournament to the point that the regular season is meaningless. Why should a major conference (other than for the money) even play a conference tournament?

What the NCAA need to do is, as it has in football, develop standards to reduce the increasing number of Division II calibre schools that created joke leagues, and it needs to get people on the committee that have the courage to understand that finishing 8th or 9th in a league, no matter the supposed quality of that league, just makes you a loser.

You answered it yourself. Money trump's everything unfortunately.

 

[riffjim4069]

Say goodbye to the NIT. If they expand to 96, what would be the point of the NIT? Oh, wait a minute, there's no point to it now.

I agree! A 96-team field is a silly idea and it will almost certainly kill the the NIT. At one point (prior to television) the NIT was bigger than the NCAA Tournament, but the I doubt there will be (m)any teams worth watching should the NCAA take the Top 96 teams. To to honest, I don't watch college basketball so it won't impact my life.

 

[Ramy]

Well let me be the first to say I like it. It doesn't cheapen anything. When the tournament first expanded to 64 there were only about 300 schools, maybe less in Division I. Now there are over 340 teams and if they let the NIT die and move them to the NCAA I have no problem with that.

 

[SandraC]

The regular season, which even now nobody pays attention to until after the Super Bowl, will become even more meaningless.


Sandra

 

[Skyhi]

The regular season, which even now nobody pays attention to until after the Super Bowl, will become even more meaningless.


Sandra

Agreed. As it is, CBB isn't what it used to be because of the top players jetting after 1 year to go to the NBA.

If the expand the field, they might as well just disband the conferences, cancel the regular season, and hold a huge triple elimination tourney with all the teams invited and run it from Dec-April.

 

[cosmo_kramer]

I feel the NCAA should put this effort towards establishing a Div. I Football playoff system instead and leave the hoops alone...

 

[SandraC]

Agreed. As it is, CBB isn't what it used to be because of the top players jetting after 1 year to go to the NBA.

If the expand the field, they might as well just disband the conferences, cancel the regular season, and hold a huge triple elimination tourney with all the teams invited and run it from Dec-April.

Or forget the regular season, and hold a 340 team February/March/April madness single elimination tournament that starts right after the Super Bowl.

That's all that will matter anyway.


Sandra

 

[BillD1984]

I for one will be PO'd if they screw around with what, IMO, is among the top three sporting events on the calendar!

 

[meStevo]

All for it, means UNLV will get more opportunities to join the tournament. Yay.

One day I'll finally go to a UNLV game and actually care, but still, nice to see people happy and rally around a local team, we don't get that much in Vegas post-Jerry Tarkanian