NCAA Tournament expansion debate hinges on math and money

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The debate over expanding the NCAA men’s basketball tournament isn’t really a debate.

It’s just a math equation.

While the consensus in college sports is that expansion from 68 teams to 72 or 76 is inevitable – largely because the commissioners of the SEC and Big Ten want it – NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt has gone on a media tour recently insisting that the issue is far from settled.

“I couldn’t predict as I sit here today what the outcome is going to be,” Gavitt told CBS Sports last week.

There’s a good – and simple – reason for that.

Expanding the NCAA Tournament is going to be expensive. Unless you can guarantee that schools and conferences won’t lose money by expanding, what’s the point?

And that’s where the math comes in.

Let’s say the tournament expands to 76. That means four additional games, likely played on Tuesday and Wednesday before the quote-unquote “real tournament” starts on Thursday.

Keep in mind: We already have two play-in games on Tuesday and Wednesday, broadcast on TruTV. So essentially, expanding the tournament means that you’ll have four games instead of two on each of those days.

There’s only one question that matters here: What’s that worth to the television networks?

According to the NCAA, last year’s four play-in games drew “a total of 6.2 million viewers,” which is pretty good for a normal college basketball audience and especially on TruTV, the relatively obscure channel where Turner Sports has parked those games. Still, it’s well short of the 8.53 million average for the Thursday and Friday first-round games.

What that means is the general public – the folks who don’t really watch much college basketball but enter their bracket in the office pool and pump up the ratings for March Madness – still considers Thursday the real start of the tournament. Which it is.

What CBS and Turner need to assess is whether fans and viewers will change their habits and migrate to the Tuesday/Wednesday games or whether…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/ncaa-tournament-expansion-debate-hinges-181635002.html

Author : USA TODAY Sports

Publish date : 2025-03-06 18:16:00

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