NCAA Logo (Creative Commons)

Cross-posted on The Sports Union.

Recent reports say the NCAA tournament is likely to be expanded to 96
teams in the near future. The immediate reaction of almost all sports
fans is the same outrage:

"Why would you change a perfect system!" they yell. "You are going to
dilute the tournament will bad teams!" they scream. "The NCAA is just a
bunch of money grubbing fools!" they shout.

While I was barely conscious when the field was expanded from 32 to
64 teams in 1985, I'm fairly certain these were the same argument
against it. Americans hate change of any kind, unless it's changing the
channel.

While there are major concerns about expansion that have been
splashed about in the mainstream media, there are a few reasons why you
need to un-bunch your panties and roll with the March Maddness expansion
wave.

Exposure Galore

First, and maybe least important to the fans, is that the coaches are
in support of this expansion. There is nothing that gets a coach fired
quicker than missing the Tourny so many years in a row. There is also
nothing that highlights the exemplary job Mid-Major coaches do more than
appearances at the Big Dance. The expansion will mean more time in the
spotlight for more teams.

Coaches will point out that in college football 68 of the 119 D-I
teams go to bowls-57 percent. While only 65 of the 344 D-I basketball
teams make the dance-under 19 percent-and adding 31 more teams would
only up that percentage to 27.

College basketball is one of the cheapest big time sports for
colleges to participate in and be successful. At most schools there are
12 scholarship players, and only a handful need to be talented enough to
take a team to the tournament and make noise. One upset, or even a
close loss, in March can bring a school the kind of publicity it needs
to see an uptick in student applications, not to mention some added
revenue from the NCAA.

Dilution Discussion

Second, this isn't a scheme that is going to bring in an overwhelming
about of rag-tag-teams and prolong the tournament. The current plan is
overtaking the NIT and give the top 32 teams a bye the first two days of
the tournament. This not only adds more games, but allows those
boarder-line teams to fight it out amongst each other on a prime-time
stage. No longer would the first few days be littered with 1 vs. 16
blowouts, but more closely matched teams. And while they might still be
over-matched when they take on that No. 1 seed, they will have at least
won a game or two, and possibly be a more formidable foe for higher
seeds.

The plan will also not drag out the Tournament, instead there will be
games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which in the end, for the fans, just
means more things to distract you from doing the work you really don't
want to finish anyhow. And it may finally dissolve the NIT, which,
unless you are a Dayton Flyer, you probably thought was dissolved
already.

It may be true in some cases that it makes the regular season less
important, but not for all teams. For many teams this will keep them on
the bubble longer, and the truth is we talk more about bubble teams
during the end of the season than anything else. Also, winning teams
will still be playing for byes and higher seeds. The expansion could
also allow other incentives to surface, such as Duke coach Mike
Krzyzewski's suggestion that regular season league champs get an
automatic bid (although, lets be honest, they pretty much do in the
major conferences).

Power to the Channel Surfer

Finally, and which should be most important to the fan/viewer,
expansion would mean the NCAA opting out of its current 11-year $6
billion contract with CBS, which it can do from the end of the
tournament until July 31.

The initial reaction is to scream and holler that the NCAA would only
opt out so it could sign a deal worth more money. This is true, and I
don't think anyone, even the NCAA, could deny it. Adding 31 more teams
would certainly warrant a larger contract because of the content and
revenue those extra games will provide.

If it opts out, the NCAA would do so with the assumption that it will
have several television corporations bidding for the rights to
broadcast the tournament. And the important factor for the viewers is
that it can demand-or at least favor-bids that include multiple
platforms and channels to play its games on.

Let's touch briefly on why the NCAA would do this from a business
side: duh, more channels and platforms means more ad revenue, which
means it can demand more compensation.

More importantly for fans, it means that no longer will we have to
sit by at the mercy of CBS decision makers who jerk us back and forth
between games like we are on chatroulette. Why on Gods green earth in
2010 should a person with a fairly basic cable package not be able to
see multiple games at a time (and the freaking full thing, not this 20
minutes here five minutes there, oh you want the Michigan State-NIU slug
fest but we will make you watch Duke and Purdue pull each others
eyelashes out, crap).

I'm not one to automatically back Darth Vader and the ESPN Sith Lords
of sports, but just imagine a wold where you sit down to watch the
Tournament and within seconds you have more games-full games-at your
fingertips than your eyeballs can watch. And its under your control, not
some producer in a control room guessing what games you want to watch
and when you want to watch them. ESPN has so many platforms at its
disposal you can't even count them on one hand: ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPNNews,
ESPNU, ABC, FullCourt, ESPN360, ESPN Mobile, soon to be ESPN 3D... hell
they'd probably even put games on the Disney Channel if they thought it
would make more money.

Don't try and claim that CBS's broadcast of the games on the Internet
is the same. Trust me, that is where I watch everything, it ain't the
same. And it wants you to buy extra packages or DirectTV to get all the
games. Yes, thanks, my salary is what again? Oh, I can write it off on
my taxes because I run a sports website, forget I said that.

The point is, knowing that it will face this pitch from ESPN, other
companies will have to come with a similar plan. They will have to
partner with other networks or cable channels in order to compete. That
means opting out will most likely mean more channels with games.

And no matter who comes out on top in the billion dollar bidding war,
the more channels with the stunning upsets and thrilling March Maddness
at our control the better. Even if those games are Middle
Tennessee State vs. Quinnipiac University.