NCAA Tourney Expansion Could Dilute Product, Hurt TV Ratings

Expanding March Madness Could Lower TV Ratings

The proposed expansion of the NCAA men's basketball tournament to either 68 or 96 teams "would inevitably devalue college basketball's regular season, conference tournaments and NCAA selection show," according to Michael Hiestand of USA TODAY. Expanding the tournament field to as many as 96 teams could create "lots of new games of little interest to casual fans nationally -- thus lots of low ratings." CBS' first-round time slots for last year's tournament averaged a 4.2 rating, and "showing teams that wouldn't get invites in the present format likely would produce worse ratings." And if the NCAA "adopted the good idea of airing each nationally rather than crunching them together in regional coverage for the sake of ratings, early-round games in an expanded field might get tiny ratings" (USA TODAY, 2/3). Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan said, "The only reason that we're having this discussion is television thinks that if they expand it, they could put more games on and milk more of the magic. But they will only prove the dictum that 'more is less'" ("Around The Horn," ESPN, 2/2).

PROS & CONS: In Cleveland, Lesmerises & Alexander note the expansion "could ease the pressure on a major conference team ... and provide more opportunities to mid-major schools," but that would occur "at what cost?" Kent State Univ. men's basketball coach Geno Ford predicted an expanded field would include "at least seven more mid-majors." But Cleveland State Univ. men's basketball coach Gary Waters said, "I'm not agreeing with (expansion). In order to make the NCAA, you need to be worthy. It has a lot of special qualities to it the way it is." Univ. of Akron men's basketball coach Keith Dambrot "doesn't believe expansion would cheapen the tournament, though he acknowledges it probably would put less importance on conference play for major conferences" (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 2/3). The Washington Post's Dan Steinberg: "It would make it more fun. The more teams, the more fun. The first weekend is always the best weekend. This would give us basically two first weekends" ("Washington Post Live," Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, 2/2). In Tacoma, John McGrath writes under the header, "64 Not Quite As Magical As You Think." Fears that an extra 32 teams will render the regular season useless are "nonsense." There are 347 Division I men's basketball teams, and a 96-team field would feature 28% of them. The NCAA "still would be as discerning about who is worthy and who isn't of its signature tournament as big-league baseball is with its playoffs" (Tacoma NEWS TRIBUNE, 2/3). ESPN's Michael Wilbon: "I hope that wiser people prevail. The NCAA basketball tournament is one of the few things in sports in this culture which I think is perfect the way it is. ... This is insane. They're fixing something that isn't broken, and they're going to break it" ("PTI," ESPN, 2/2).

WHITHER THE NIT? In N.Y., Lenn Robbins writes if ESPN outbids CBS for the rights to the NCAA tournament, the event "will expand to 96 teams, leaving no place for the Postseason NIT." Sources indicated that the NIT Season Tip-Off tournament then "would leave" N.Y. and "become known as the First Four tournament to be played in the same venue that hosts the Final Four the following spring" (N.Y. POST, 2/3).