Tournament Expansion News!

[inflectionpoint]

:(



DJ ) 04/22 12:07PM *DJ CBS Sports, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. And The National Collegiate Athletic Assoc Reach 14-Yr Agreement For Division I Men's Basketball Championship
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires (212-416-2400)
04-22-10 1207ET
Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

( DJ ) 04/22 12:07PM *DJ CBS, Turner, NCAA Pact Includes Television, Internet, Wireless, Marketing Rights Through 2024
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires (212-416-2400)
04-22-10 1207ET
Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.



( DJ ) 04/22 12:09PM *DJ CBS, Turner, NCAA Pact Worth More Than $10.8B
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires (212-416-2400)
04-22-10 1209ET
Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

[gopherguy05]

here from usatoday....ug

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2010/04/ncaa-reaches-14-year-deal-with-cbsturner/1

[Minnie Soda]

That's 14 more years of Jennifer Hudson singing "One Shining Moment"... :rolleyes:

[inflectionpoint]

Good find Gopherguy. Thanks.

Why only 4 to start? You have to figure it'll be 96 soon. Why 68 though?

Good grief.





here from usatoday....ug

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2010/04/ncaa-reaches-14-year-deal-with-cbsturner/1

[ChemEGopher]

ONLY 68 Teams! That's good news.

[SelectionSunday]

Kudos to the NCAA for thinking this through and perhaps listening to the (majority of) their fans? Gotta' believe they felt some of the backlash. Expanding to 68 is something I can live with, though what it really means is 6 additional small schools will have the ignominy of having to play their way into the tournament.

For now, this decision preserves the integrity of the regular season and, to a lesser extent, the conference tournaments. That's what I'm most excited about.

I would expect 96 is still on the table for somewhere not too far down the line.

[JimmyJamesMD]

So make that 3 more teams that get screwed and dont actually make it to the real tournament.

This bubble was so weak this year, I couldnt imagine 3 more at larges in the tourney. Yuk.

And this by no means is turning off the 96 team switch. This contract only lasts until 2014.

[Tully55]

14 more years of Clark Kellogg?????? :(

[Rotundo]

I understood the hatred for the 96 team model but if you are pretending to be outraged over 3 more teams then you just like pretending to be outraged. Not a big deal at all.

[Rotundo]

Glad ESPN didn't get in the mix.

[howeda7]

All things considered, I'll take this over the alternative. I'm glad it's staying on CBS at least partially, and 68 is tolerable. While I don't doubt 96 will rear it's ugly head again, I assume they'll let this be for 3-4 years at minimum.

Now my only question is...what is Tru TV and does DirecTV carry it in high definition? I suspect the Gophers will end up there...

[NateDawgUM]

The best part of this news is EVERY GAME ON TV! How often is your local game a blowout while there's a great game coming down to the wire.

No longer having to pull out my laptop or run to the corner bar is good news.

[Gopher07]

All things considered, I'll take this over the alternative. I'm glad it's staying on CBS at least partially, and 68 is tolerable. While I don't doubt 96 will rear it's ugly head again, I assume they'll let this be for 3-4 years at minimum.

Now my only question is...what is Tru TV and does DirecTV carry it in high definition? I suspect the Gophers will end up there...

Tru TV is a reality TV station owned by Turner (I think). DirecTV doesn't have it in high def, but I suspect this may change that.

[SelectionSunday]

My initial thought (other than, super, it's not 96) was the same as Nate's, every game will be on live. No longer have to go to a bar/restaurant to see the games I want to see.

[dpodoll68]

There should be dancing in the streets over this. Color me shocked (seriously) that the NCAA chose to preserve the integrity of the best overall sporting event on the planet at the expense of money grubbing. Kudos to them for keeping their heads removed from their collective rectum, listening to the fans, and actually making their once-a-decade correct decision. Hey, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

[GopherJake]

This contract only lasts until 2014.

Wrong.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2010/04/ncaa-reaches-14-year-deal-with-cbsturner/1

[JimmyJamesMD]

The original article i read on espn stated an out clause after 2014.

[Pewterschmidt]

This is an expansion I can get behind.

1. It creates stability for the near future. No more 96-team talk for a while.
2. It only adds 3 teams to the field. It'll be slightly more watered down but not to the point of making the conference tourneys, etc pointless. There still will be bubble talk that's meaningful.
3. I like the amount of cash going to the conferences. It'll only strengthen college basketball
4. EVERY GAME IS NOW ON TV!!!

Some negatives but hopefully mostly positives. Have they mentioned how they will handle the additional 3 teams? Will the small conference schools be forced to play their way in or will they have the last bubble teams fight for a spot? I'd prefer the latter.

[howeda7]

Myron's tweet seem less certain that this is all decided for sure. But he was saying 96 was certain an hour ago. Then again, we know how reliable of a source he is...

[Zeppelin Gopher]

Awesome!

I can live with 68 for sure.

96 would have been a disaster.

[howeda7]

Some negatives but hopefully mostly positives. Have they mentioned how they will handle the additional 3 teams? Will the small conference schools be forced to play their way in or will they have the last bubble teams fight for a spot? I'd prefer the latter.

Having the 4 play-in games between bubble teams on the 12 line would be better basketball and actually make the Tuesday games meaningful. However, to preserve the popularity of bracket pools and gambling in general, I suspect the 16 line will have the 4 play-in games, thereby not changing anyone's current routine's when it comes to the play-in games (i.e. disregard them completely.)

[beowulftom]

That's 14 more years of Jennifer Hudson singing "One Shining Moment"... :rolleyes:

LOL.... NOOOooooooooo!!!!

[Minnie Soda]

This bubble was so weak this year, I couldn't imagine 3 more at larges in the tourney. Yuk.

Yeah, because a second team from the Missouri Valley or another school from the Mountain West would sure make the tournament field weak.

[beowulftom]

This is an expansion I can get behind.

1. It creates stability for the near future. No more 96-team talk for a while.
2. It only adds 3 teams to the field. It'll be slightly more watered down but not to the point of making the conference tourneys, etc pointless. There still will be bubble talk that's meaningful.
3. I like the amount of cash going to the conferences. It'll only strengthen college basketball
4. EVERY GAME IS NOW ON TV!!!

Some negatives but hopefully mostly positives. Have they mentioned how they will handle the additional 3 teams? Will the small conference schools be forced to play their way in or will they have the last bubble teams fight for a spot? I'd prefer the latter.

Good question.

It would seem that this plan adds three more bubble teams and reduces the cinderalla teams, unless they're stipulating that all conference winners avoid the play-in games. Not a huge change but it seems a case of the rich (bcs schools) getting just a bit richer.

[Swede]

Haven't had a chance to read up: will the 3 additional teams plus the current 65th teams be bubble play-ins, or will the #1's get a first round bye? I'd heard some scuttlebutt about that during the tourney.

[howeda7]

Haven't had a chance to read up: will the 3 additional teams plus the current 65th teams be bubble play-ins, or will the #1's get a first round bye? I'd heard some scuttlebutt about that during the tourney.

Don't think I follow your math. If they gave the four #1's a bye and the other 64 teams played, you'd end up with 36 teams after the 1st round (32 + 4). There has to be 4 play-in games to get from 68 to 64, it's just a question of which line in the bracket they'll play in to, the #12 seed or the #16.

[From the Barn]

So why is Marcus already picking a fight with Tubby?

"GophersNow Tubby's chances at making NCAA tourney for third straight year at MN gets even better with expansion to 68 teams. But does it mean the same?
7 minutes ago via web "

[howeda7]

I think (hope) going only to 68 shows a couple of things:

-That the NCAA heard and reacted to the huge public back-lash at the 96 team format.

-That the real increase in money was not from adding 31 medicore games that might drive away the casual fans with the sheer bloat, but from getting the tournament at least partially on cable. The reality is that broadcast TV is slowly dying and cannot pass on the cost of things like this to the cable/satellite companies as easily as the cable networks can. Retransmission fees for over-the-air stations have only started to happen in the past few years and the cable companies fight them at every turn. Therefore, the only way to get more money was to involve a cable partner that has the clout to get thier money back in increased fees. This was presumed to be ESPN, since they've taken over almost everything else, but turned out to be Turner.

Jennifer Hudson aside, CBS has done an excellent job of things over the past 20 years, and I'm glad they're sticking around. Further, I hope Turner leaves well enough alone and basically lets CBS continue to handle most aspects of production, etc.

[SelectionSunday]

Beowulf hit it right on the head; it's the rich getting richer. Three more at-larges -- which pure percentages say will go to the major conferences -- while now 8 small-conference champions (instead of 2) will be shooed off to the play-in round.

I'll be positively stunned if they force the lowest 8 bubble teams (defacto #11 and #12 seeds) to play their way into the Round of 64. NOT.............. GONNA'................... HAPPEN, though I sure hope it does.

[beowulftom]

Beowulf hit it right on the head; it's the rich getting richer. Three more at-larges -- which pure percentages say will go to the major conferences -- while now 8 small-conference champions (instead of 2) will have be shoved to the play-in round.

I'll be positively stunned if they force the lowest 8 bubble teams to play their way into the Round of 64. NOT.............. GONNA'................... HAPPEN, though I sure hope it does.

So true SS...

Maybe a good thing that will come out of this is a tougher opponent for the #16 vs #1 game...

[SelectionSunday]

"GophersNow Tubby's chances at making NCAA tourney for third straight year at MN gets even better with expansion to 68 teams. But does it mean the same?"

It's definitely kind of a smart a*s remark by Marcus, but there's still validity to it. Fact is, it'll now be a tad bit easier to make the tournament. Tubby quickly hit the first major benchmark of rebuilding a program, making the NCAA Tournament in Years 2 & 3 (quicker than most of us expected, I presume). I think now in Year 4 it's a reasonable expectation that the Gophers climb higher in the Big Ten standings & start winning games in the NCAAs.

[beowulftom]

If these rules were in place this year,

Which bubble teams would have been in?

and

What would the play-in games have looked like? (Would it be the 15 & 16 seeds because there are some good teams then?)

[beowulftom]

One more good thing that may come of this....

More pressure on BCS schools and coaches to make the tournament.

It actually may increase strength of schedule, and gives a lot of weight to the in-conference tournaments...

[mnboiler]

3 thoughts:

1. 68=Win. 96 would be terrible. If I ran the world the Tourny would be 64. No play-in games.

2. Having the final game on TNT is STUPID. It would be just as stupid as if it was on ESPN. I realize 96%(no facts just a high number I randomly picked) have both TNT and ESPN but it isn't the same. I really don't want to see ads for the NBA playoffs or Braves baseball while I'm watching the final game. The final game should be on broadcast TV, plain and simple. Some of the early games I really don't care.

3. TBS and TNT are fine television partners with CBS but, truTV really? thats the best they can do for a 4th TV partner. I expected better for the NCAA tourny. Come on NCAA and CBS do better.

[HopHead]

This is just my humble opinion, but I think the NCAA really wanted to go to 96 teams. Then they realized that if they did that and created more mid-week games in the second week (meaning lots more students missing classes) they would be contridicting themselves and all the arguments they use in shooting down a football playoff system. They have to have to be very careful not to kill either of their cash cows in the NCAA Basketball Tournament and the current football bowl system.

I would like to beleive they are only going to 68 teams because they listened to the fans instead of the $$$ but if they really listened to the fans they would have a football playoff by now.

[SelectionSunday]

If these rules were in place this year, which bubble teams would have been in?

Based on my final projections, I would have chosen as teams #66-68 Illinois (the one I missed), Seton Hall & Virginia Tech. William & Mary and Mississippi State would have been my first couple out.

What would the play-in games have looked like?

The #16 seeds were Arkansas-Pine Bluff, East Tennessee State, Lehigh, Vermont & Winthrop. Then we would have had 3 of the #15 seeds, Morgan State, North Texas, Robert Morris & UCSB join 'em. I don't think any combination of these schools would stir the masses next season on play-in Tuesday, though Bob Morris was quite plucky vs. Villanova.

[jovs]

Good find Gopherguy. Thanks.

Why only 4 to start? You have to figure it'll be 96 soon. Why 68 though?

Good grief.

At some point adding too many teams negates the importance of the regular season. If you are not in contention for the conference championship you would focus your development to get ready for the tournament. The regular season would not be that important. I don't think that would be good for college basketball. 68 is enough for me.

I also hope they exclude the automatic bids from playin games and make the last at large bids play those games.

[beowulftom]

If these rules were in place this year, which bubble teams would have been in?

Based on my final projections, I would have chosen as teams #66-68 Illinois (the one I missed), Seton Hall & Virginia Tech. William & Mary and Mississippi State (in that order) would have been my first couple out.

What would the play-in games have looked like?

The #16 seeds were Arkansas-Pine Bluff, East Tennessee State, Lehigh, Vermont & Winthrop. Then we would have had 3 of the #15 seeds, Morgan State, North Texas, Robert Morris & UCSB join 'em. I don't think any combination of these schools would stir the masses next season on play-in Tuesday, though Bob Morris was quite plucky vs. Villanova.

Man, you're good!

Sounds like those play-in games would be on the "4th partner" truTV....:)

[GopherJake]

I also hope they exclude the automatic bids from playin games and make the last at large bids play those games.

Totally agree. It would be like taking the bubble out of the hands of the committee and letting the players decide it on the court. Brilliant.

Winners get each of the four #12 seeds. I would think that would be much better ratings than 2 Low Life Conference champions playing to see who gets slaughtered by the #1 seed.