NCAA Announces Plan For ‘First Four,’ Featuring Field Of 68 Play-In Games

And so they are. Let’s take a look around the SBNation College sites and see what everything things.

Washington State’s CougCenter:

Back when the NCAA announced that it was expanding March Madness to 68 teams, there were two dominant theories about how this would play out in the bracket.

The first was that the additional three at-large teams would simply push down the automatic qualifiers from lesser conferences, effectively having 16/17-seeds fight to play 1-seeds in the first round of the tournament. Given that the folks at the NCAA likely wouldn’t go to the trouble of adding three more at-large teams (presumably lesser teams from power conferences) merely to have them eliminate each other in play-in games before making the field of 64, this seemed like the odds-on choice.

The NCAA just sent out a press release announcing its new TV contract with CBS/Turner Sports, and it included a very surprising line about NCAA Tournament expansion (emphasis mine).

This is an interesting move considering all the noise about how it was 96 teams or bust. It also could very well be a permanent move rather than a stop-gap decision. As Sporting News’ Mike DeCourcy notes, there was nothing in the press release that indicated this was a temporary decision. Then again, the word “permanent” doesn’t appear in the release either.

What was described as “inevitable” three weeks ago has now become a reality. Much to the chagrin of many fans of the 64-team bracket, the NCAA will expand the NCAA Tournament starting next year after signing a new 14-year TV deal with CBS and Turner Sports, according to USA Today.

The NCAA will formally announce the new arrangement in a 12:30 press conference Thursday, according to John Ourand of Sports Business Journal.

Few things have aroused such vehement opposition as the proposed expansion of the NCAA tournament to 96 teams. Sure, a few dissenting voices have tried to champion the contrarian argument, but by and large, the consensus is why mess with perfection? After all, it’s not as if anyone ever looked at March Madness and said “you know what this is missing -- the NIT field!”.

Apparently incoming NCAA Chairman Gene Smith is among those lukewarm at best when it comes to expanding the NCAA tournament. Although Smith doesn’t have a say on whether expansion happens or not -- the current batch of NCAA chairmen will make that decision -- Smith would be the one who would have to implement the first 96-team tournament, should they decide to go that route.

Finally, the article ends with an interesting note:

Will that crown jewel get a massive makeover in two weeks? Stay tuned.

Seemingly by all accounts, expanding the NCAA Tournament to 96 teams is a foolish decision, hated by fans and motivated by the dollar sign. So of course, it seems that it is exactly what the NCAA is planning to do (ESPN’s Pat Forde said it is “inevitable.”)

On Thursday, the NCAA held its annual press conference at the Final Four, a time used “to discuss issues associated with men’s basketball and this tournament, which is integral to our association.” Leading the day was NCAA senior vice president of basketball and business strategies, Greg Shaheen, who used his time to discuss proposals for tournament expansion, specifically the 96-team field, as that is the one which has gained the most popularity (though there is also an 80-team idea and a 68-team model, which would use four play-in games):