Saturday, May 1, 2010

Congratulations NCAA

The NCAA finally made its official men's basketball expansion plan public this week. Indeed, the college basketball world will now have a 68-team field.

I can live with three more teams. It was the 96-team early talk that concerned me. I maintained the attitude (like many other folks apparently)"if it's not broke why fix it." And I think the NCAA listened to the public backlash. Good move, I mean great move.

This will allow for additional surprised runs such as Butler made this past season. The element of surprise would become history if a 96-team field plays.

It's not like the NCAA is going to suffer because it scaled down the expansion plan. The group received a new TV contract and plenty of more money besides.

I also applaud the move to televise every game to every market. In the past, TV viewers were basically restricted to games in their own regions. Now, if I don't like the Midwest offering, I can watch something from a different region. However, viewers will need to pay closer attention to times and specific channels on their TVs.

I'm curious how this will all work out. It should become fun. Maybe the men viewers should plan on practicing with their remote controls before the tournament starts. It will become more challenging to follow the games, but a good challenge.

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