The following is the second part of a two-part series celebrating the health and success of Division I men's and women's basketball and examining some of the concerns that the guardians of the game must work through to protect the sport as one of the Association's primary assets. This NCAA News Centerpiece focuses on the Division I men's and women's basketball tournaments. The Centerpiece in the March 15 edition of the News examined issues that might affect the health of the overall men's and women's game

There may be no better way to impart the significance of the Division I Men's Basketball Championship than to recall that in March 2003, as America was sending troops into Iraq, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was telling the NCAA, by all means, to play the games.

Bob Bowlsby, who chairs the Division I Men's Basketball Committee, said the message from the White House was clear: The tournament had to go on because it was so emblematic of the American way of life.

"It gave me an eerie sense of how important this event is at all levels of our society," the University of Iowa athletics director said.

The bond between the tournament and the nation has been strengthening for more than six decades since the University of Oregon beat Ohio State University in the first Men's Final Four in 1939. Today that bond seems impenetrable -- it unites the NCAA and basketball fans as the Association's most popular event, it provides vital resources as the Association's most profitable event, and it links the NCAA with television and corporate entities as the Association's most public event. CBS Sports Senior Vice-President for Programming Mike Aresco in fact called the relationship between the network and the NCAA "the closest in all of sports."

One would assume then that with such ties that bind, maintaining the tournament would pretty much be a slam dunk. But to think that actually would be an airball. Not only does the year-round mountain of administrative work required to run the tournament escape people who might think it is easy and fun to produce, guardians of the game also must be mindful of the pressures upon the sport itself -- from economic to academic -- that always are just a layup away from potentially tarnishing the Association's crown jewel.

"But the decisions that have been made over time have been ones that have kept the tournament strong and prospering without giving way to things like commercialism and the other aspects that have crept into college athletics," said Bowlsby. "The guardians of the game have carefully nurtured this event through the years to make sure it stays pure and represents the best aspects of collegiate athletics."

Bowlsby is among those guardians. The 13-year Iowa AD has served in many NCAA committee capacities, but the position he currently holds attracts perhaps the brightest spotlight in college sports. Rather than shy away, though, Bowlsby and others be fore him have committed to protecting something special.

"(Former Iowa athletics director) Bump Elliott told me when I was appointed to the basketball committee that it would be the most enjoyable, professionally fulfilling role that I'd had," said the man who has chaired the Division I Management Council and Wrestling Committee and presided over the Division I-A Athletics Directors Association. "He was right."

Still, no other group is scrutinized, and perhaps criticized, as much as the men's basketball committee. Yet no other group is as forthcoming about the procedures it follows to select and place teams in the bracket. The policies and criteria are posted and publicized -- committee members and staff even take the show on the road to coaches meetings and other sessions to be as transparent as possible. "More than anything else, the committee goes out of its way to avoid the reality or even the perception of anything but objectivity," Bowlsby said.

Influential decision-makers

Two administrators who helped fortify that objectivity are C. M. Newton and Dave Gavitt. Newton planted roots in the tournament as a student-athlete, coach, athletics director and committee chair during a period that touched six decades, while Gavitt chaired the group during perhaps the most explosive era of tournament growth. Both men speak reverently about the integrity the event has maintained -- through hundreds of committee members with diverse opinions, through different television entities, and through bearish and bullish economic times.

Both Newton and Gavitt point to bracket expansion as having taken the tournament to the prestigious level it enjoys today. Newton said, "Initially, it was not a national tournament because the committee kept teams in regions, and if you happened to be in a weak region, you could get to a Final Four without having to play the stronger opponents. But once they started enlarging the tournament field to teams other than conference champions -- from 32 teams to 48 and then to 64 -- then I think it truly touched everybody. Now, the mid-majors have a real opportunity as well as the high-profile conferences. It's truly a national tournament."

"The committees I served on sought what we referred to as 'a delicate balance,' " said Gavitt, who chaired the group from 1981 through 1984. "We wanted to create a bracket that wouldn't exclude any team that had a legitimate shot at the national title."

Gavitt said after the bracket expanded to 48 teams in 1980 and to 64 teams in 1985, that balance was achieved to the committee's best ability. The number of at-large berths made the tournament accessible for everyone, regardless of any perceived power advantage among leagues. "In other words," he said, "the conferences were important only as far as determining their automatic qualifier. After that, every team was considered an independent. That brought us deep enough into the pool to ensure that everyone who had a legitimate chance to win the title was included.

"That model has withstood the test of time, and it has kept the importance of the regular season and ensured that the tournament touches all 50 states. Be it Valpo or Duke, everyone goes with high hopes."

Gavitt said the effects of expansion were recognized immediately when North Carolina State University came from a low-seeded start to upset the University of Houston in the oft-replayed dramatic final in 1983. Villanova University followed that with its own Cinderella story in 1985. Gavitt said neither team would have made the field under the old formula.

Other changes during that time also worked to build the tournament's strong foundation. Gavitt noted that the decision to move teams out of region helped create a national tournament. "It was the right thing to do," Gavitt said, "It not only increased the impact of the preliminary rounds, but it also created compelling intersectional match-ups like a Stanford versus Maryland or a Kansas versus North Carolina -- games that used to be 'made for TV' in the old days."

The third significant change, Gavitt said, was the decision the committee made in the early 1980s to give more consideration to domed stadiums as Final Four venues. The first domed final was in 1971 at Houston's Astrodome, but Gavitt said the experience was compromised by a configuration resulting in some lower-level seating that looked up at a raised floor. "For those of us privileged to go every year, it wasn't a compelling atmosphere," he said.

But given the public demand for access to the games and the fact that the Final Four had become a "happening" more than just another sporting event, Gavitt said the committee thought it would be selfish not to take a hard look at domes.

The committee awarded the 1982 Final Four to New Orleans' Superdome, but not without extensive attention to detail. Gavitt said members made five or six site visits to deliberate the configuration and stabilize the integrity of the event despite a seating capacity that could range from 35,000 to 61,000. Gavitt said the committee settled on the larger, but gave ticket purchasers in so-called "distant view" seating areas the chance to apply for a refund if they wished. But after the then-record crowd of 61,612 watched Michael Jordan and North Carolina down Georgetown, few if any refund requests surfaced. That told Gavitt's group that domes didn't detract from the integrity of the event. Thirteen domes have hosted the event since.

Television impact

Another element positioned to either add to or detract from the integrity of the tournament is television. Without it, the tournament doesn't enjoy its current popularity; with it, network representatives and basketball committee members must learn to compromise when necessary. So far, neither side complains much about the other.

"The championship should look like the Masters, not an Italian soccer stadium," Gavitt said. Subsequent committees, he said, have maintained a clean venue free of signage and have established meaningful relationships with corporate partners and encouraged coverage without letting media overrun the event.

"Television by its very nature is prying," he said. "If you allow them to, they'd have a camera and a microphone on every player. But so far, CBS and the committees have done a great job in presenting the product."

CBS's Aresco said the network and the committee have an outstanding relationship. And as Gavitt suggested, Aresco acknowledged that television is interested in giving fans "access to the game in ways they might not have had before." Indeed, Aresco said there have been discussions about perhaps miking coaches or having reporters "tastefully eavesdrop" on team huddles during timeouts, but that no consensus has been reached.

Aresco is the first to emphasize his network's interest in protecting what he calls "a venerable property with an unbelievable tradition." At the same time, he said, there also is an interest in adding twists that appeal to each new generation of fans, or in some cases, to appeal to fans who have walked away.

"To some extent, we've had an erosion among casual viewers because of players leaving college early; there's no getting away from that. TV is driven by marquee names and star power, and if the LeBron Jameses were in college, the ratings would go up. We know that," Aresco said. But he also noted that despite a decline perhaps in the number of star players who play as collegians for three or four seasons, the tournament nonetheless has an endless supply of compelling stories to keep fans glued to their sets.

"You're not going to see three- and four-year star players as often. That's the nature of things," Aresco said. "But you can recognize that you have a tournament with far more competitive balance and a sport that is beautiful to watch; the game is faster and more exciting than it's ever been. And you have a chance to focus on human interest stories because there are so many great ones.

"There's renewal as well as change, and we have to remain clear-eyed about what the best things are to take away."

Horatio Alger alive and well

Gavitt said the best take-aways are the components that form the very basis of the game.

"The success of the tournament is, number one, the kids in short pants who play the game and, number two, the coaches who coach them," Gavitt said. "We have to put them in surroundings that are as consistent and fair as you can make them. The tournament has evolved and grown better every year, but it's like a house -- if you don't build it on a good foundation, no matter how well you decorate it, its value may not be as great as it should be. Some of these decisions in the early years built that structure very solidly, and it has withstood the test of time."

Bowlsby said the tournament also has withstood other tests, such as recent negative publicity in men's basketball in general, from concerns about graduation rates to alleged academic fraud. While those concerns are real, they seem to be quieter in March.

"All the best aspects of college athletics and all the worst aspects of college athletics are present in men's college basketball," Bowlsby said. "It's a daunting task to enhance and retain those things that are good and improve upon those things that are bad."

Through it all, though, the hundreds of committee members over time have managed to collectively stave off the bad kind of madness to protect the copyrighted version. As Gavitt says, "It's such an exciting time of year. Cinderella always has a place at the dance."

Bowlsby couldn't agree more. To him, the tournament conjures up a novelist made famous for his characters who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps to become success stories. "What do we have to celebrate?" Bowlsby said. "It's the fact that Horatio Alger is alive and well and living in the men's basketball tournament. It's as good an opportunity there is for an upstart to make their way in the world. We should all be proud of that."