68 team tournament in 2011 on CBS and TBS
Mostly, just wanted to make sure people saw this presser:
CBS Sports, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. and the National Collegiate Athletic Association Reach 14-Year Agreement for Division I Men's Basketball Championship
Key points:
* 68 team tournament in 2011 recommended, but not a done deal. No 96...yet.
* All games shown live either on CBS or Turner Platforms
Beginning with the 2011 championship, opening- , first- and second-round games will be shown nationally on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV. CBS and Turner will split coverage of the regional semi-final games. CBS will provide coverage of the regional finals, as well as the Final Four® including the National Championship Game through 2015. Beginning in 2016, coverage of the regional finals will be split by CBS and Turner with the Final Four and the National Championship game alternating every year between the CBS Television Network and Turner’s TBS.Have at it!
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:16 PM ^
That seems awfully dumb to me, as no one really watches the play-in games.
The one positive, I suppose, is that it adds three more 'legitimate' teams from the bubble. And I suppose 68 is less than 96 (trust me; I ran the numbers twice), which is good.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:22 PM ^
I'll just take your word for it on that whole 68 vs. 96 thing.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:29 PM ^
For symmetry purposes, I definitely like 68 better than 65.
Although it would wouldn't suck to be the 70th team.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:34 PM ^
People would watch the play-in games if they were between the at-large teams on the bubble.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:39 PM ^
That would make way too big a mess.
- If you pre-seed the play-in winners (say, at #12), there'll be all kinds of seeding screwjobs. The four lowest at-larges in previous tournaments have been everywhere from #10 to #13.
- If you don't, then you have to either wait til Wednesday to declare the bracket for a Thursday start, or put the play-ins on Sunday. That would be robbing Peter to pay Paul, because the conference tournaments are money-makers too, and you would lose a ton of money by not only replacing Sunday conference tourney games with Wednesday ones, but jamming them all together in a closer timeframe and having them cannibalize each other even more for ratings.
I think the play-in for bubble teams is a definite no-go.
There's nothing saying you couldn't change the play-in game's seed from year to year, and I don't think it's that big of a deal to have your first scenario. I don't think you'd ever do the second scenario, that's just dumb.
Trust me, it will become that big a deal. It would be the number one thing that gets complained about. Butler was a five seed this year, remember? It has an impact. Every year people are complaining that such and such a team got screwed in the seeding, screwed in the location, this, that, and everything. Yeah, you could change the seed from year to year, but the whole point is that no matter where you have it, fixing the seed in place is unfair. If you say it's the 10 seed, for example, you've just dumped a deserving AQ (like St. Mary's) into a tougher matchup that neither they nor their opponent deserve. You can't properly fix the seeds until you know who's in the tournament - period.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:36 PM ^
But the 1-16 games aren't exactly big drawers either, and this way you will likely get 3 more high major type teams into the tourney, teams that will draw more viewing audience in the 11 to maybe 12 seed range.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:42 PM ^
This is one of the two big positives in this news for me. The other is obviously that it's not 96 teams (yet).
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:39 PM ^
I am indifferent on the play in games. On one hand it eliminates 4 directional schools that would more often than not, get massacred by a 1 seed, but with the auto bids for those types of conferences, they did earn the right to get into the tournament and not be relegated to those slap in the face play-in games.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:53 PM ^
Is it less of a slap in the face with there being four games? I think so. Also, I think eventually, this gives a greater chance at the epic 1/16 upset. One of those 15 seeds who had upset a 2 seed, under this scenario would be taking on a 1 seed. Maybe, finally, one of them will break through.
All in all, I think this is great (although maybe I'm just saying that because I'm elated the alternative 96 team tournament isn't coming to be). More games, the ability to pick and choose without being at a bar, the integrity of the bracket retained for the most part, and with three more bubble teams getting in, nobody should have a gripe if they don't make it.
It doesn't really seem fair to the four #1 seeds to have to wait to find out whom they're playing until a couple of days beforehand, whereas all the other teams know 4-5 days in advance. Someday we're going to see a #1 seed lose and its coach will bring that up.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:18 PM ^
...65 vs. 68 vs. 96, it's nice to see that all games will now be broadcast. That said, I have no idea what truTV is. I suppose this will force most systems to add them to their lineup.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:21 PM ^
It used to be CourtTv and is channel 72 in Ann Arbor (Comcast).
...knowledge. I have to admit that I don't get into that channel's neighborhood too much. Back to my original point - it's great to see that the new deal has all of the games available for viewing.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:44 PM ^
You've never watched Forensic Files? I love that show. It's really interesting.
Also, I was under the impression that most mid-range cable packages already have truTV...
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:21 PM ^
This means all games should now be available in their entirity for those who get cable, which is probably about 99 percent of people who care about sports enough to watch them. There is nothing worse than the cut-ins of games you don't care about because "your" team is doing so well that the network nabobs deem "your" game to be "uninteresting."
I know that we haven't really had that luxury for over ten years as UM fans, but the day will come when Michigan is a perennial top 25 team again. With this contract, it looks like none of us will be deprived of watching the maize and blue in favor of someone else's 12/5 upset again.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:28 PM ^
Has to be ecstatic about this. The tournament will basically have the same feel except that now most fans get to watch all of the games, instead of depending on the wacky editing of CBS. This is great news.
More like relieved. But yes, considering the alternatives that were being considered, this is one that college hoops fans should be able to live with.
I suspect that part of what the NCAA is thinking about is the prospect that more and more Div. II schools will want to move up to Div. I for basketball (and maybe football) and in the process you might wind up with more small one-bid leagues. The NCAA understandably doesn't want a whole lot of NCAA Touney games featuring Duke versus whoever it was that managed to win the Yooper Conference championship. They want the first full round to feature mainly teams that are capable of giving the top seeds a contest, hence more play-ins. It wouldn't completely surprise me if eventually we got up to 72 or 80 teams.
It isn't pretty, but it makes sense from both a business and a competitive standpoint.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:31 PM ^
This actually happened here in Chicago last year when UM was up by double digits on Clemson in the 2nd half - they cut away to another game, only to cut back with a minute or so left and UM up by only 1. There is no reason in today's world of 500 channels for one station to have to share 4 simultaneous games.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:41 PM ^
the NCAA still lets all the games be streamed online for free. If that ends, I am going to be pissed.
I saw a few tweets mentioning that this would likely spell the end of March Madness on Demand.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:29 PM ^
I dislike this development. The big important games should be on broadcast TV for all to see. But yeah, I know I'm in a minority.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:34 PM ^
I imagine CBS will still get first pick of any round where they are splitting games. Plus they get the last 7 games of the tournament. For the most part, I don't think your viewing will change that much without cable.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:51 PM ^
"Beginning in 2016, coverage of the regional finals will be split by CBS and Turner with the Final Four and the National Championship game alternating every year between the CBS Television Network and Turner’s TBS."
Who knows -- maybe six years from now I'll have cable. But if I want to watch the Final Four and the championship game, I'll have to have cable every other year.
How big of a sports fan are you if you don't have access to cable or know how to play streaming games on your big screen? Also, maybe you're not a social creature but bars usually broadcast all the games. I fail to see how this is a negative development for anyone with all the options this now presents.
with my opinion that free tv is better for all than pay tv.
I'm offended that you don't have cable. How would you be able to watch Michigan vs. UMASS????
Six years from now there will probably be a pretty easy way to access TBS live without paying for cable.
I didn't read that far the first time, but in six years I'll agree with you, not being able to watch the final four for free would not be great.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:35 PM ^
Well, thank goodness some voice of reason from somewhere...even if it was in the form of deep-pocketed network execs...came in and put the kibosh on the 96-team tourney, at least for the time being. I still don't get the need to have a play-in game, let alone 4 of them... but this plan sounds like an actual improvement, at least in terms of viewers being able to see the most games.
I hope Turner getting Final Fours in the future means shuffling the commentating so there is more Gus Johnson calling it and not Master's whispering Nantz. Nantz almost made the Butler Duke game boring. CBS should just keep him in golf.
Couldn't agree with you any more. I'm ok with Nantz on golf, but Gus should be doing the Final Four. He brings so much more excitement to the game. But this will never happen because it appears CBS will let Nantz do as he pleases until he retires. Damn shame.
It's about time every game was available live (w/o buying them on DirecTV). If NBC can show every Olympic curling match, this deal was long overdue.
not be completely insane and held off on the 96-team idiocy. I don't think the tournament needed expansion at all, but I'm OK with 68 teams. They simply added a few more games at the very beginning that nobody except the fans of those play-in teams will watch.