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05-18-2006, 01:05 PM
By Steve Wieberg, USA TODAY
For the first time since adding a 65th team in 2001, the committee that oversees the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament is weighing expansion of the field.
Spurred by Syracuse's Jim Boeheim and other coaches, who called in March for at least modest expansion and met with the committee last week, incoming chairman Gary Walters said he expects the 10-man panel to address the issue, probably when it next meets June 26-30 in Orlando.
"We're going to have a serious discussion," said Walters, who takes over as chairman in September, "and then we'll make some decision about where we'll proceed from there."
The committee has been cool in the past to suggestions of expansion, reluctant to tamper with a hugely popular and successful event. "What we have right now is working pretty well. There's no outcry out there," Walters said. "(But) I don't know that we should be influenced by whether there's an outcry or there isn't. What we should do is act in what's in the best interests of the game as stewards of the game."
Expansion, if it happened, would require approval by NCAA legislative bodies and probably couldn't come before 2009. Neither Walters nor others would speculate on how many berths could be added, though suggestions have ranged from three (and an overall 68-team field) to 15 (and an 80-team bracket).
Among concerns: when and where additional games would be played and how the current 22-day window could be expanded; the effect on an 11-year, $6 billion CBS contract that runs through 2013; and potential changes in how that revenue is shared by participating conferences and schools.
The tournament's last significant expansion came in 1985, when it went from a 53-team bracket to 64. A 65th berth was added in 2001 to accommodate the champions of all 31 Division I conferences and 34 at-large selections, with the two lowest-rated entries assigned to a play-in game.
Division I's growth from 282 teams in 1985 to 334 today and growing parity in the sport — underscored by George Mason's Final Four appearance in April — have fueled coaches' calls for a larger field. Boeheim, among others, advocated perhaps eight to 10 more teams, and the National Association of Basketball Coaches pursued the proposal during its annual meeting with the NCAA committee last week in Atlanta.
EYE TO THE FUTURE: George Mason looks ahead
"I expect it to get a serious look simply because it's been so long since we studied it," said Greg Shaheen, an NCAA vice president instrumental in running the tournament. "If nothing else, it's a state-of-the-tournament review ... of how the tournament is structured and how it operates and how to do it best."
For the first time since adding a 65th team in 2001, the committee that oversees the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament is weighing expansion of the field.
Spurred by Syracuse's Jim Boeheim and other coaches, who called in March for at least modest expansion and met with the committee last week, incoming chairman Gary Walters said he expects the 10-man panel to address the issue, probably when it next meets June 26-30 in Orlando.
"We're going to have a serious discussion," said Walters, who takes over as chairman in September, "and then we'll make some decision about where we'll proceed from there."
The committee has been cool in the past to suggestions of expansion, reluctant to tamper with a hugely popular and successful event. "What we have right now is working pretty well. There's no outcry out there," Walters said. "(But) I don't know that we should be influenced by whether there's an outcry or there isn't. What we should do is act in what's in the best interests of the game as stewards of the game."
Expansion, if it happened, would require approval by NCAA legislative bodies and probably couldn't come before 2009. Neither Walters nor others would speculate on how many berths could be added, though suggestions have ranged from three (and an overall 68-team field) to 15 (and an 80-team bracket).
Among concerns: when and where additional games would be played and how the current 22-day window could be expanded; the effect on an 11-year, $6 billion CBS contract that runs through 2013; and potential changes in how that revenue is shared by participating conferences and schools.
The tournament's last significant expansion came in 1985, when it went from a 53-team bracket to 64. A 65th berth was added in 2001 to accommodate the champions of all 31 Division I conferences and 34 at-large selections, with the two lowest-rated entries assigned to a play-in game.
Division I's growth from 282 teams in 1985 to 334 today and growing parity in the sport — underscored by George Mason's Final Four appearance in April — have fueled coaches' calls for a larger field. Boeheim, among others, advocated perhaps eight to 10 more teams, and the National Association of Basketball Coaches pursued the proposal during its annual meeting with the NCAA committee last week in Atlanta.
EYE TO THE FUTURE: George Mason looks ahead
"I expect it to get a serious look simply because it's been so long since we studied it," said Greg Shaheen, an NCAA vice president instrumental in running the tournament. "If nothing else, it's a state-of-the-tournament review ... of how the tournament is structured and how it operates and how to do it best."