INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA's
Board of Directors approved an expanded men's basketball tournament
Thursday, passing a proposal that will take the field from 65 teams to
68 next season.
The move comes one week after
NCAA officials recommended the first expansion of March Madness since
2001, when the tourney added one team to the 64-team field that was
established in 1985.
Still to be determined: How the
format will work.
The board is hoping that by
adding three opening-round games to the one already played, it will
eliminate the stigma of a what outsiders have dubbed the tourney's
"play-in" game.
Thanks to the new 14-year, $10.8
billion television package with CBS and Turner Broadcasting, announced
last week, fans will be able to choose which games they want to watch.
It will be the first time that every game will be televised live
nationally.
And now the tourney will have
three more teams competing — fewer than most people were expecting.
Four weeks ago during the Final
Four in Indianapolis, NCAA officials discussed the possibility of
expanding to 80 or 96 teams, proposals that were rejected after
television executives said additional games would not affect their bids
for broadcast rights and the public complained that so many more teams
would water down the competition.
While the NCAA kept the ability
to expand at will, it went with the much more modest 68-team format that
likely means three more at-large bids.
"Expanding to 68 teams gave us an
opportunity to involve more teams in the championship, and in doing
that, we were able to enhance the experience of the opening-round game,"
said Clemson president James Barker, the committee chairman. "Expansion
enables us to give more exposure to the universities and provide more
opportunities for student-athletes."
Committee members were not
immediately available to answer questions on a day they were also
scheduled to discuss legislative proposals regarding the use of
athletes' names, images and likenesses in commercial products,
concussions and tougher academic standards for junior college transfers.
But the top of the agenda was
the NCAA's marquee event.
"We will spend the next two
months studying various options and garnering feedback from the
membership in an effort to finalize a format for the four opening-round
games that makes the most sense for everyone involved," said UCLA athletic
director Dan Guerrero, the outgoing selection committee chairman.
Guerrero also chairs the
Division I men's basketball committee, which must approve format
changes.