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    NCAA continues to weigh basketball expansion options

    Apr 2, 2010 4:57:34 PM

    By Greg Johnson
    The NCAA News

     

    The NCAA is still weighing whether to expand the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship, but if it opts to do so in the near future, it's likely that a new model would feature either a 68- or 96-team tournament conducted over the current three-week window.

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    Greg Shaheen, NCAA senior vice president of Division I men's basketball and business strategies, outlined various scenarios during a news conference at Lucas Oil Stadium Thursday afternoon in preparation for this weekend's Men's Final Four.

    The expansion talk has increased recently since the NCAA has the right to opt out of the final three years of its current 11-year, $6-billion television contract with CBS that went into effect in 2001. A decision whether to opt out must be made by July 31.

    If a new agreement is reached, expansion of the Division I Men's Basketball Championship could be part of the deal. While the NCAA president has the authority to enter into a new contract agreement, only the Division I Board of Directors has the authority to alter the tournament field.

    Shaheen said a 68-team field would increase the opening round to four games that feed into the first round. Currently, there is one opening-round game and the winner becomes a No. 16 seed that plays a No. 1 seed on the first Friday of the tournament.

    The 96-team model would eliminate the opening-round game, and the top 32-seeded teams (the top eight in each region) would receive byes to the second round. The other 64 teams would play first-round games on Thursday and Friday after selections are announced, with the winners advancing to Saturday and Sunday second-round games.

    The third round of the tournament would be held the following Tuesday and Wednesday. The NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee is studying whether those games would be played at the first- and second-round sites or if they would be conducted at the regional sites. Current contracts for preliminary-round sites include a wide window of dates the sites must be available.

    The regional semifinals and finals would still have a Thursday-Saturday, Friday-Sunday format. The Men's Final Four would also remain on a Saturday-Monday schedule.

    Among concerns raised during the press conference was additional missed class time an expanded bracket might prompt. But Shaheen said that issue and other factors are being scrutinized.

    "There are pros and cons to all of the models," Shaheen said. "We have been studying various models, studying the marketplace and monitoring what the world is doing outside of the Association. The discussion started in concept in 2007 and 2008. As we headed into 2009, we went in depth into the models."

    Shaheen reminded reporters that the television contract and rights fees support all 88 NCAA championships. He also said 75 of those championships have expanded their brackets in the last 10 years.