Greg Shaheen, NCAA senior vice president for basketball and business strategies, recently discussed men’s basketball postseason opportunities and NCAA media contracts with The NCAA News.  The News previously spoke with Division I Men’s Basketball Committee chair Dan Guerrero, the athletics director at UCLA, about related basketball matters. Click here for that interview.

NCAA News: Talk about the possibility of expanding the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

Greg Shaheen: The basketball committee has had this issue on its radar screen for some time as one of many strategic considerations. The current timing coincides with the conclusion of the current television contract with the NIT, as well. We have a number of opportunities to think through regarding the NIT. Does it become bigger, smaller or what other options make sense? We’ve had very good experience with the NIT. The question is how can these two events coexist and coincide? We have to listen to what our membership wants. As with all such matters, the committee is serious about trying to figure out what is best for the game.

NCAA News: What are the chances that the NIT could cease to exist?

Shaheen: We’re in uncharted territory. This is a position almost no one figured we would be in 10 or 20 years ago. I’m not sure anyone thought the NCAA would be in the postseason-event business outside of the NCAA championships. There are a variety of options, and we’ll take a look at what makes the most sense.

NCAA News: What is the deadline for the Association with the current CBS and ESPN contracts?

Shaheen: The CBS and ESPN contracts both feature an exclusive opt-out from the NCAA side after the eighth year. This is the eighth year of that contract that started in 2002-03. We need to give them sufficient advance notice, so we have to let them know by the middle of next summer.

NCAA News: How does the economy factor in all this?

Shaheen: Generally, the economy was slowing even when the current contract was completed in 1999. At the time the “dot com bubble” had come close to bursting, and it did shortly thereafter. Not long after came 9/11, with all of its economic ramifications. One of the benefits of a long-term contract is you can ride out tough economic times, which reduces the risks to a broadcast company because it is unlikely that the economy would be down for the entire length of the contract. Our goal, and Myles Brand was central to this thinking, is that we need to do our due diligence during this opt-out period. We not only have to make sure we make an informed decision regarding the opt-out but also be thinking about the actual end of the contracts in 2012-13. Whether the opt-out happens, it is not make-or-break for this exercise. It actually gets us going so we can make decisions in the best interests of the Association. That could be over the next several months or the next few years. More than $2.7 billion remains in the final four years of those contracts.

NCAA News: How many broadcasting entities would be interested in an NCAA television contract?

Shaheen: Our initial survey of the waterfront tells us that there are multiple parties interested, some of which have never looked at us before. We’re pleased with the due-diligence process thus far. We’ll see where it goes.

NCAA News: If the men’s basketball championship did expand, what gender-equity ramifications would that have in terms of postseason competition?

Shaheen: We want to make the best decisions across all of our championships. It is important to point out that we’re looking at everything. We have 88 championships and over the last several years we’ve had a variety of championships that have expanded. Basketball gets a lot of the attention, but it is more than that. In the case of women’s basketball, the steady growth in that sport is our unified focus. We are working with the leadership of women’s basketball within the office and in the membership to understand what should be done in the best interests of the game. There isn’t any disagreement regarding the important market presence that men’s basketball has on the value of our overall multimedia agreements. As an Association, our presidents are telling us – and Dr. Brand was telling us this all along – that we need to do what is best in the case of each individual sport. As we look at women’s basketball and the other 86 NCAA championships, it will be done with the analysis of what is in the best interest of the respective sports.

NCAA News: Do you think people on the outside grasp how many things are affected if the Division I men’s basketball tournament expands − things like the playing and practice season and conference tournaments?

Shaheen: You have to look at things in totality. You have to receive feedback, and we have to look at whether the Division I men’s basketball tournament would be 65 teams or something different. We need to use opportunities like this to determine what we need to do overall. It is not always clear that we’ve done that as well as we could. This is an opportunity to work more at effectively making the regular season and the conference tournaments as relevant and meaningful as possible. This is one of those moments in time where we have to mindful of those things.

NCAA News: Are these exciting times for you?

Shaheen: I am just one of several people working on this. More than anything I am humbled to have the opportunity to be part of it. We’re all very aware of how important it is to get the best possible result. We know that this stands to help a lot of people, and it affects a lot of people on a daily basis. Again, this is really not just a men’s basketball issue. We’re looking at everything. There are some things we do where there may not be 30 million people who care about it, but there are a fair number of people who are interested in a variety of the NCAA championships.