Which is why the NCAA will soon expand its men\u2019s basketball tournament from 68 teams to pick-your-number. This is about survival.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s inevitable,\u201d TCU men\u2019s basketball coach Jamie Dixon<\/a> said.<\/p>\n All of the idealists and purists who love March Madness the way it was when we were kids need to get over it.<\/p>\n Major college conference basketball tournaments start this week, with the NCAA announcing its respective March Madness 68-team brackets late in the afternoon on Sunday, March 15.<\/a><\/p>\n Somewhere in the next hour after the field is announced, there will be contemplation and whining about the specter of the NCAA growing its postseason field, most likely to 76 teams.<\/p>\n \u201c[Expansion] is not the devil. I don\u2019t understand this stance of morality that you are going to murder somebody if you expand the tournament,\u201d Dixon said in response to much of the online outrage of the thought of expanding the field. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I am in favor of it, but it\u2019s not the end of the world if we do.\u201d<\/p>\n Think of it as an example of playoff expansion. When was the last time a major sports organization did not grow its playoffs, because that\u2019s where the real money is.<\/p>\n Why people don\u2019t want the NCAA Tournament to expand<\/p>\n This won\u2019t take long.<\/p>\n No. 1 Adding more teams violates the sanctity of \u201cit was better when I was younger.\u201d People complained when the tournament expanded from 32 to 64 in 1985.<\/p>\n No. 2 Expanding to a single-elimination tournament typically adds teams that are not a threat,<\/a> and is entirely about revenue around quantity rather than quality.<\/p>\n No. 1 is subjective idealism. No. 2 has weight.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are less teams capable right now than ever before and there\u2019s many have-nots, and it\u2019s not their fault,\u201d former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said Monday on \u201cThe Field of 68\u201d podcast<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t think you mess with something that\u2019s gold. It\u2019s gold.\u201d<\/p>\n Why people do think the NCAA Tournament \u2018should\u2019 expand<\/p>\n The math isn\u2019t terrible; 361 schools compete in NCAA Division I men\u2019s basketball; increasing the field to 76 means 21 percent of the teams are in the \u201cplayoffs.\u201d The following are the percentages of teams that make North America\u2019s largest respective postseasons:<\/p>\n NHL: 50 percent<\/p>\n NBA: 53.3 percent<\/p>\n MLS: 61 percent<\/p>\n NFL: 43.75 percent<\/p>\n MLB: 40 percent<\/p>\n CFP: 9 percent (figure fluctuates depending on how many teams are in the NCAA\u2019s FBS; last season was 136).<\/p>\n Coaches want an expanded playoff field because it gives them a better chance to improve their resume, and increase job security.<\/p>\n Adding a few more teams could potentially provide a solution to the dominant mid-major team that has a great regular season only to fail to win its conference-tournament championship, and lose out on its league\u2019s one NCAA Tournament bid.<\/p>\n Navy\u2019s 17-1 record in the Patriot League this season is the best in the conference by six games. In the Patriot League semifinals, the Midshipmen were upset by Boston University by one point on a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer<\/a>.<\/p>\n An expanded field would in theory help a Navy<\/a>, but in reality expect the tournament selection committee to pursue at-large bids for the teams from the major conferences, specifically the Big Ten and the SEC. The more those teams flood the field, the better the chance the NCAA has of preventing the two highest-profile college leagues in America from breaking away and starting their own major college organization.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say I\u2019d think it should [be expanded], but I wouldn\u2019t die on a cross for it,\u201d Dixon said.<\/p>\n The final reason, of course, is cash.<\/p>\n In 2010, the NCAA agreed to a 14-year, $11 billion contract with CBS and Turner<\/a>. That deal was extended, in 2016, and added $8.78 billion to a contract that will now expire in 2032.<\/p>\n According to TV network professionals, this contract is dramatically undervalued for what March Madness is actually worth, especially in the age of legalized gambling across the United States.<\/p>\n Also, CBS and Turner officials have told the NCAA if the field expands, there will be no new money. The \u201cnew money\u201d would come from sponsorships, ticket sales and other deals the NCAA negotiates as part of an expanded field.<\/p>\n Unlike the rest of the NCAA\u2019s other championship tournaments, its men\u2019s basketball tournament is the only one that makes money, whereas the rest generate revenue but don\u2019t offset the costs.<\/p>\n From a TV timing perspective, increasing NCAA Tournament field to 78 can fit. According to TV executives, as long as the NCAA Tournament is carried by CBS, it all has to \u201cfit\u201d in a three-week window leading into the coverage of the Masters. The national title game is on Monday, April 6; the Masters begins April 9.<\/p>\n That would mean conference tournaments end on Saturday\/Sunday, and the additional NCAA tourney games would be played on Tuesday\/Wednesday, similar to the \u201cFirst Four\u201d games on those two days.<\/p>\n As much as purists may loathe it, NCAA Tournament expansion is, as Jamie Dixon said, inevitable.<\/p>\n Mac Engel<\/a><\/p>\n Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n Mac Engel is an award-winning columnist who has covered sports since the dawn of man; Cowboys, TCU, Stars, Rangers, Mavericks, etc. Olympics. Movies. Concerts. Books. He combines dry wit with 1st-person reporting to complement an annoying personality.
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\n Support my work with a digital subscription<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WORTH The NCAA claims to hold 92 championships in 24 sports for its member institutions, and of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[78283,116,118,117,58326,78282,78281,78284],"class_list":["post-198140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-college-basketball-playoffs","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-jamie-dixon","tag-march-madness-teams","tag-ncaa-tournament-expansion","tag-tournament-revenue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}