NCAA tournament expansion not good for fans

The NCAA announced today its plans to expand the men’s basketball tournament from 65 to 68 teams beginning next year and a new, $10.8 billion broadcasting deal with CBS and Turner Broadcasting that will allow every game to be shown live for the first time.

This deal doesn’t enhance March Madness. And in some ways, it smudges the sheen of what should be the brightest aspect of any sports fan’s spring.  

The move essentially creates a play-in game in every region of the tournament. These matchups figure to be about as riveting as Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s win over Winthrop was in the 2010 play-in game. Yes, I’m being facetious. 

It reads like nothing more than an effort to keep the little guys down. We can foresee the Missouri Valley Conference champ taking on the Patriot League champ every year in one of these games for the RIGHT to face that particular region’s No. 1 seed. And anyone who has filled out a bracket knows how many times a No. 16 has advanced past the No. 1. 

If you want to take something positive away from this agreement, it’s that local teams UTEP and NMSU will have a slightly improved chance at an at-large bid should either school do well any given year but fail to win its conference tournament. But there'll be plenty of Big East and Southeastern Conference teams with 17-15 records that the selection committee will have to look at first. 

All that's well and good, but it’s the TV coverage part of the deal that will really irk sports fans. 

The agreement with CBS and Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting System Inc. runs from 2011 through 2024. It means that every game next March will be shown live — on CBS, TBS, TNT or truTV — for the first time in the tournament’s 73-year history.

That means if you’re at work, as many of you are, you aren’t gonna be hearing Greg Gumbel’s rich baritone moving you from one city to another for live look-ins. You’ll be stuck with the CBS game, whatever it may be. 

Forget regional coverage, too. So if Tim Floyd (should he still be here, remember, we haven’t heard from the NCAA infractions committee yet) leads the Miners to the Big Dance next season, and that game is slated for a noon start on TNT (or TBS or truTV) and you’re at work, you won’t see the Miners unless your company has a satellite dish on the roof. Not to mention there are a multitude of homes in the area that don’t have access to cable. That means plenty of sports fans will only get 25 percent of the March Madness experience. 

Doesn’t sound good to me. 

The rest of the TV deal shakes out like this:

Next year, everything through the second round will be shown nationally on the four networks. CBS and Turner, an entity of Time Warner Inc., will split coverage of the regional semifinal games, while CBS will retain coverage of the regional finals, the Final Four and the championship game through 2015.

Beginning in 2016, coverage of the regional finals will be split by CBS and Turner; the Final Four and the championship game will alternate every year between CBS and TBS. Under the agreement, the NCAA and CBSSports.com will again provide live streaming video of games, though Turner secured rights for any player it develops.

Comments

[Rob]

The addition of the 2 teams is hardly going to make a difference in the overall tourney, honestly its a pointless move.

I'm still trying to figure out what it is you are complaining about re: the TV contract, it sounds much better than the last cpl years lack of options for viewing the games..seems to me your biggest gripe is you won't be able to watch while at work? You are lamenting the loss of hearing Greg Gumbel and the "look ins" on other games?
So somehow that's better than being able to watch the game YOU WANT, not the one the network forces you to watch?

And to top it off, YOU point out that all the games will also be available
(as they have been before) to view live over the internet, which is where most of those at work will and have been viewing the games...

So what is your complaint again?

[Rob]

oops typo..should be 3 teams

[Lorenzo]

I think you're wrong on this one Pablo. 96 teams would have been a bad idea, 68 is an improvement. You make fun of the teams like Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Winthrop but keep in mind these are teams who belong to conferences at the very bottom of the NCAA totem pole. Not in a million years will the Golden Lions of the world have a chance to beat the Jayhawks of the world in a first round match. So how exciting would it be for those teams to play in a play-in game they can actually win, to be able to tell their kids that they won a game in the Big Dance one day. Those play-in games may not draw huge ratings, but they definitely mean something to the teams involved. Teams in the SWAC typically play one or two home-games outside of conference. The rest of the time they're on the road being 'easy wins' for the goliaths of college hoops. These extra three slots in the tournament give three more worthy bubble teams a shot at the dance as well as it throws a bone to those teams playing in the play-in games. The fact that its only three teams means the expansion is small enough not to jeopardize the importance of the regular season, which an expansion to 96 teams would have done.

[Lorenzo]

Look at this way: Let's say the top 3 teams left out of this past year's tourney were Virginia Tech, Mississippi State, and Ole Miss. Would anyone really have had a fit if these teams got in this past year because they 'weren't worthy.' I think not.

[alvinyork]

I used to like college basketball until two things -- TV money and greed -- got out of hand.

Plus, no team with double-digit losses belongs in any postseason tournament.

[nike air max 2009]

I think you're wrong on this one Pablo. 96 teams would have been a bad idea, 68 is an improvement. You make fun of the teams like Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Winthrop but keep in mind these are teams who belong to conferences at the very bottom of the NCAA totem pole. Not in a million years will the Golden Lions of the world have a chance to beat the Jayhawks of the world in a first round match. So how exciting would it be for those teams to play in a play-in game they can actually win, to be able to tell their kids that they won a game in the Big Dance one day. Those play-in games may not draw huge ratings, but they definitely mean something to the teams involved.

[NCAA 11 Rosters]

I'm not sure if I'll be happy for the expansion of any more teams, however, I believe that if there would be 3 more teams, that would give everyone an opportunity to see more teams involved in the championship.