March Madness To Expand To 96 Teams?

With the 2010 NCAA basketball tournament right around the corner, I figured it would be a good time to bring up the news that the NCAA is considering expanding the field of the tourney to 96 teams from its current 65.  This would be a major overhaul for one of the best sporting events of the year and there would be both winners and losers should this come to fruition.  I’m not really a huge fan of basketball, but I somehow always seem to get wrapped up in March Madness, whether it’s because of a bracket I’ve filled in or if by odd chance my alma matter actually makes it in.  Given that there are a lot of other “fringe fans” like myself out there, would it be a good idea to fix something that’s not broken?

The thing that jumps out right away is that this is just a huge money grab for the NCAA.  More games equals more money, plain and simple.  Currently the NCAA is in the midst of an 11-year/$6B with CBS for the TV rights, which the NCAA is trying to get out of because the rights are probably even more valuable.  Expanding the tourney would be ridiculously lucrative for the NCAA.  You also have the slight benefit of more temporary jobs in the arenas where the games are played.

Another angle is that more schools would get to participate in the tourney, which would be potentially good for the schools, although it can be argued that mediocre coaches who normally would be fired if they didn’t make the cut, would receive a stay of execution because they wind up in the bracket.  There’s also the issue of how to handle the asymmetric bracket and what the competition would be like with “lower echelon” teams in there now.  There are often some lopsided outcomes in the first rounds and although I’m sure the #1 seed wouldn’t play #96, no one’s going to be as excited about the prospect of one low-ranked team upsetting a slightly higher ranked team.

I’m going to have to stick with, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it” on this one.