I love sports so much, I have a degree in the sports industry and the best month of the sports in this country is about to be upon us like the 12 and a half inches of snow that blanketed Dallas two weeks ago. For these reasons I bring to you my opinion on the recent rumors of an expansion to a 96 team field in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.
The current field is comprised of 64ish teams. It was 64 until the Mountain West Conference came into existence. This conference was a break up of the WAC which had grown too quickly to 16 teams and for whatever reasons (probably ego) the teams didn't get along and the teams that were originally in the WAC had to break off and leave to create the MWC. At this point college basketball was already at odds with figuring out how to limit the "snubs" or teams that didn't get into the tournament at the end of the season. Being that the MWC would soon (had to wait till their second season) earn an automatic bid to the tournament for their conference tournament champion, the NCAA had to get creative. Now instead of having 30 automatic bids there was now going to be 31, small change right? Wrong. This change also meant that there would now be 33 instead of 34 "at large" teams would get a bid to the tournament. This means there would be one more "snub" and the NCAA was already taking heat for letting teams like Liberty, Johnny Walker Northwest State southern community college, and Stony Brook into the tournament every year (I made one of those up... guess which one). So they added the "Play-in" game or as I like to call it "Hey we get to play in Dayton (who cares) for a chance to get our asses handed to us by a team with at least 3 future NBA players on it"... HOORAY!
So now we have a field of 65 or like I said 64ish.
Recent rumors and some legitimate reports have surfaced. The main legitimate source of information has come from Street and Smith's Sport Business Journal. In an article from February 1st they say that they have obtained an RFP (request for proposal) from the NCAA showing a request for bids on a new TV deal which would include and expansion to 96 teams. Yeah you read that correctly, freaking 96! Based on Current RPI rankings and assuming the current RPI theory of the top 40 teams get in with 65 teams, with no more automatic bids in a 96 team tournament, that would mean the 71st best RPI would get in. Everybody please welcome to the tournament From The University of Tulsa your completely average and on a 4 game losing streak Golden Hurricane! Yes in theory they'd make the dance.
College football has already sold their soul for money and considering the fact that the governing body for both football and basketball is the infamous NCAA, I guess basketball soon will too. College football now has 34 bowl games (including the world famous New Mexico bowl, the Little Ceasar's Pizza bowl, and I can't forget the uh oh... Better get Maaco bowl) that means that 68 out of the 120 college football teams in Division 1A make the post season, which is 57% (yeah, and the Lobos STILL weren't good enough). Although 96 out of the 347 NCAA Division 1 basketball teams isn't as ridiculous at 28% that number seems a little low but it's not when you consider the complete lack of talent or teams able to compete at the highest level, I mean after you get past about 181 they are all teams with losing records from schools with multiple directions in their name that you could pick out on a map in your life depended on it.
I understand that sports is a business, I better considering that whole degree in Sports Management thing right? I'm also aware that a large and substantial portion of the NCAA's income (not just basketball but the entire NCAA) comes directly from TV rights to their end of the season quest for a champion. As stated in the SJB article the NCAA is currently in an 11 year $6 billion contract with two years remaining. Due to the escalating nature of the contract a little more than a third of that money is still remaining in the contract ($2.131 billion). So increasing the tournament from a field with 64 games to a field with 95 games, would therefore increase the size of the rights deal due to increased exposure and advertising revenue, etc, etc. But at what cost does the NCAA risk in this possible change? I feel they could lose a large piece of their credibility. In doing research for this posting (yeah I haven't done that since school, it was a little weird) I found that a phrase most often uttered was something along the lines of "your ALREADY have it right". It is arguable that college basketball is the only American sport that has their method to crowning a champion correct, including the professional sports. So driven by greed and money (aren't we all) the NCAA will risk screwing up a good thing. The tournament has the perfect mixture of teams, has a great buzz around trying to get in, and lasts the perfect length, everyone is tuned in for the entire 3 weeks. It's what is talked about around the water cooler, shoot I even remember bringing a walkman and rigged head phones to class in high school so I could listen to broadcasts of games between two random schools (I love college basketball).
Possible poor outcomes of a 96 teams field:
-Are you really gonna want to fill out a 96 team bracket? You may think that's not a big deal but, every office, club, or group of friends currently fills one out and guess what... a lot of them then watch the tournament for the sole purpose of seeing how their bracket does. Which in turn relates to ratings which is translated into higher prices charged for advertising which means more money for everyone (well except the players... that's what the boosters are for haha).
-Lack of credibility. How many people outside of Albuquerque and the two crap teams that end up playing in the New Mexico bowl really tuned into that one? Exactly, NOBODY. That's what will happen to the first round of games with a 96 team field. That will then lead to less people watching the following rounds. Momentum and intrigue of watching George Mason all the way through as they make their run at the final four is one of the main reasons to watch.
So I make this plea. Please NCAA don't expand your tournament, you have it right. You are already the big winner don't get greedy. Tell coaches like Jim Boeheim whose Syracuse teams gets in every year already to stop championing the cause of this ridiculous endeavor. Sure if you're a coach "making the tournament" helps with job security but that could soon mean the same as being "bowl eligible"... absolutely nothing. This would also render the regular season meaningless. All you have to do is be so-so and you make post season play. PLEASE, PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU DON'T RUIN MY FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR.
Also please join the Facebook group I created.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=366002785210&ref=nf
