The Exclusive 96 Team NCAA Tournament Selection Show

While CBS had exclusive rights to the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, and then every other sports network spent hours breaking down the 65 time field, here is an exclusive. This article contains the 2010, 96 team tournament bracket.

We are ahead of the expansion curve and give you a glimpse into the future of March Madness. Using my article

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/356225-two-shining-moments-expanding-the-ncaa-tournament-field-to-96

as a guide, I created an expanded tournament using the actual bracket, and a few other factors. Getting to 96 teams was far from easy. The Cincinnati's and Miami's of the world will still be upset that they are left out of the XL bracket, but maybe winning some games in conference could have helped.

My favorite element of the expanded tournament is that the conference champion who is also the post-season conference tournament champion automatically gets a bye from the 1st round. This year, 16 teams would move directly to the 64 team bracket in round 2.

Temple, UC Santa Barbara, Old Dominion, Siena, Butler, Siena, Morgan State, Northern Iowa, Murray State, Lehigh, Wofford, Sam Houston St, Oakland, Duke and Kansas.

The remaining 16 teams with byes would be all of the 1-5 seeds in this year's tournament that did not win both titles. Three of the #6 seeds also received byes. I went on RPI rankings to determine which team had to play in the 1st round.

In terms of rankings the teams, I just went in order of where the teams are seated 6 seeds through 12 seeds, and ranked them for RPI. I then ranked the other teams not in the tournament using RPI, so you too at home have the secrets of the XL tournament committee, which is just me for now.

After revealing these extended brackets, the excitement of the 96 team tournament will be in full force. All of you will be writing the NCAA committee begging for this setup. All of you being the AD's of Illinois, Virginia Tech and Mississippi St.

First Round (These games feed into the main pool and the 2nd selection Sunday, that is why games are scheduled by geography of lower seeds).

Friday Games at Gary,Indiana (We couldn't really secure big cities like the NCAA did when they booked Spokane, Jacksonville and Providence.)

#1 Marquette vs #16 Lipscomb

#3 Louisville vs #14 Vermont

#4 Missouri vs #13 Ohio

#5 Minnesota vs #12 St Louis

Friday Games at Florence, South Carolina

#1 Richmond vs #16 Jackson St

#3 Wake Forest vs #14 Houston (Houston prefers the 65 team format obviously)

#4 Florida vs #13 Iona

#8 William & Mary vs #9 Ole Miss

Saturday Games at Stateline, Nevada

#1 BYU vs #16 Arkansas Pine Bluff

#3 UNLV vs #14 E Tennessee St

#5 San Diego St vs #12 Akron

#5 Utah St vs #12 IUPUI

Saturday Games at Bossier City, Louisiana

#1 Oklahoma St vs #16 Winthrop

#2 Texas vs #15 Coastal Carolina

#7 Wichita St vs #10 Illinois

#7 Mississippi St vs #10 Marshall

Friday Games at Disney World, Orlando, Florida

#2 Clemson vs #15 Quinnipiac

#3 Florida St vs #14 Troy

#4 Georgia Tech vs #13 North Texas

#7 UAB vs #10 Nevada

Saturday Games at Disney Land, Anaheim, California (Disney in no way endorses or even recognizes this article. I'm just thinking that ESPN might pick up the expanded contract and try to do some cross branding.)

#2 California vs #15 Stony Brook

#2 Gonzaga vs #15 Robert Morris

#4 St Mary's vs #13 Montana

#5 Washington vs #12 Weber St

Friday Games at Abilene, Texas

#6 UTEP vs #11 Fairfield

#6 New Mexico St vs #11 Charlotte

#8 Memphis vs #9 VCU

#8 Dayton vs #9 Arizona St

Saturday Games at Atlantic City, New Jersey

#6 Cornell vs #11 Portland

#6 Rhode Island vs #11 Northeastern

#7 Kent St vs #10 South Florida

#8 Virginia Tech vs #9 Seton Hall

Even with expansion, Arizona, UConn, UCLA and North Carolina still don't make it. Illinois would be a #10 seed and Virginia Tech would have a battle against Seton Hall to make the 64. It's not a pretty look for expansion, but this may be what selection Sunday is like in the future. At least the second bracket would be cool.