Save(d) the Last Dance: NCAA Tournament Expanding to 68 Teams

Today, justice prevailed.

Instead of expanding the NCAA tournament to a 96-team clusterf---, the NCAA opted to rein in their expansion, moving to a 68-team field next year instead.

The expansion was made possible by the NCAA opting out of the final three years of their 11-year, $6 billion TV contract that they held with CBS. By doing so, the NCAA opened themselves up to re-examining the structure of the NCAA tournament that wreaks havoc on March productivity in offices nationwide.

The expansion wait is now officially over. The NCAA announced a new 14-year, $10.8 billion broadcasting deal with CBS and Turner on Thursday, which is only good news for college basketball fans everywhere. 

Next year, every first- and second-round game will be broadcast on four networks—CBS, TNT, TBS, and truTV. As a friend asked me today...does this mean we get Charles Barkley for the NCAA tournament?!

Charles or no Charles...the NCAA made the right move here.

The NCAA opened the floodgates on the expansion talk during the week of the Final Four, with NCAA vice president Greg Shaheen holding a news conference to discuss the merits of a 31-team expansion. 

Problem was, when Shaheen explained the details about the proposed structure of the 96-team tournament, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that the NCAA was more focused on money than on their “student-athletes.”

Washington Post columnist Gary Feinstein danced circles around Shaheen’s logic at the press conference, pointing out that the athletes on teams which advanced to the Sweet 16 stood to miss a full week of class—in other words, taking the “student” out of “student-athlete.”

Shaheen, on the other hand, stammered like an idiot at the conference, ending the back-and-forth with Feinstein by saying, “I’m clearly missing the nuance of your point.” 

After that disaster of a press conference, the NCAA was fighting an uphill battle the size of Mt. Everest if they planned on expanding to 96 teams. 

It may be hyperbole to say the 96-team expansion was universally panned...but that’s not too far off from the reality. Writers flooded the Internet with reasons why the expansion would hurt the college game: Expansion would threaten the competitiveness of the regular season, it’d render high-major tournaments irrelevant, and it would water down the near-perfection of March Madness as is.

In a shocking move, the NCAA listened.

It’s easy to be disenchanted with the world in 2010—we’re fighting through our worst economic crisis in 70 years, 10 percent of the country can’t find a job, and you can’t spit in the U.S. without finding a money-hungry, self-serving, greedy jerk nearby.

When Shaheen took the stage in early April and rammed the 96-team tournament down our throats, the NCAA seemed primed to replace investment bankers as America’s new face of money-hungry, greedy soul-suckers.

Considering that the NCAA reportedly draws close to 96 percent of its total revenue from the NCAA tournament, the 96-team tournament was seen as all but a sure thing by the time Shaheen held his maligned press conference.

Lately, even Barack Obama would be impressed by the audacity of hope that’s been on display in the U.S. First, Governor Charlie Crist ignores his fellow Republicans by vetoing a highly unpopular teacher tenure bill in Florida...now the NCAA actually turns down more money by only expanding to 68 teams instead of 96?

As ridiculous as the NCAA had made themselves look a month ago, their decision to decline a larger expansion (and more profits) should help rehabilitate its sullied image. 

Let’s not forget...a 68-team tournament actually may end up being better than the 65-team version!

While they haven’t released specifics, a 68-team tournament should actually make that Tuesday play-in game meaningful for a change. Most of the teams on the bubble are middling teams in high-major conferences, but as Miss. St. proved against Kentucky in the SEC tournament championship...season records mean nothing once you get to March.

Could one of the four winners from those play-in games lead to the first 1-16 upset in NCAA tournament history?

By expanding to a 96-team tournament, the NCAA would have crapped on the “student-athlete” image. A 96-team expansion didn’t benefit the fans and didn’t benefit the players...it only benefited the NCAA’s pockets.

By keeping their expansion reined in and limited to only 68 teams, the NCAA guaranteed that March Madness, as we know it, lives on.