The NCAA committee was asked to expand the biggest college basketball tournament of the year to ninety six teams. The tournament currently has only 65 teams in it. There is one opening round game in which two teams play and the winner will play the overall number one seed in the tournament. Many people feel that expanding the tournament to 96 will be pointless because there will be a lot of weak teams playing in the tournament. Also it would consume alot of time.
The NCAA took alot of time and thought about the decision. There decision was to expand the tournament to 68 teams not 96. There will be four opening round games instead of 1. They felt that going to 96 teams it would water down the NCAA market. Plus CBS who currently broadcasts the whole tournament says they don't need to make any more profit off the tournament and that 68 teams was enough. This is only the second time in a quarter century that the NCAA has expanded the tournament. The tournament was expanded from 64 to 65 in 2001 and from 48 to 64 to in 1985. The NCAA Felt that the opening round games should seem more important.
Not only is the tournament Field changing also the way fans view the tournament is different. CBS and turner broadcasting signed a 14 year 10.8 billion dollar television contract. This year fans will be able to choose what games they want to watch. The tournament will be televised live. One game will be on CBS and other TNT, TBS, and TruTV. This will give fans more of a chance to see there favorite team play.
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