NCAA Tourney Expansion?

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

DI Men’s Basketball Committee discusses tournament expansion

The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee spent time talking about a possible expansion of the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship during its three-day meeting this week, though expanding the 68-team field is not imminent.

www.ncaa.com

 

[bballbeadle]

I like it! Stupid #@!! bubble!

 

[MSOrange]

 

[RandygoCuse]

They need to go back to 64. Nothing beyond that garners significant interest. I guarantee that if they expand, 99.9% of tournament pools won't require picks until the field is at 64. I appreciate everyone attending this Theodore Conversation of mine.

 

[sufandu]

If anything, I'd like it to go back to 64. Maybe I'm OCD, but I like the symmetry of it.

The bigger you make it, the less special making it in becomes.

 

[sufandu]

I like it! Stupid #@!! bubble!

There will always be a bubble, and it's not the bubble's fault we decided to take up residence on it for so long. Here's to hopefully complaining we're seeded too low instead of complaining our bubble burst.

 

[Orangezoo]

They need to go back to 64. Nothing beyond that garners significant interest. I guarantee that if they expand, 99.9% of tournament pools won't require picks until the field is at 64. I appreciate everyone attending this Theodore Conversation of mine.

I think 68 was a good move personally. The play in is fun and now you have the NBA picking it up.

The tough thing with expansion now is that there is so much uncertainty about the mega conference stuff that the landscape could change drastically and then that expansion itself has to be re evaluated and even possible retracted. Too much unknown.

What would be much better as we have all mentioned is a non conference matchup or two in February. We've already moved to early conference games so have a non conference/bracket fever week in February.

 

[RandygoCuse]

I think 68 was a good move personally. The play in is fun and now you have the NBA picking it up.

The tough thing with expansion now is that there is so much uncertainty about the mega conference stuff that the landscape could change drastically and then that expansion itself has to be re evaluated and even possible retracted. Too much unknown.

What would be much better as we have all mentioned is a non conference matchup or two in February. We've already moved to early conference games so have a non conference/bracket fever week in February.

I agree it works for the NBA.

 

[miamicuse]

They can keep it at 64, just reserved the last four spots for another 64 teams to compete, the "final 4" of the "bubble tournament" becomes the last 4 of the 64. The bubble tournament is the NIT.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Everyone will say they want to keep it at 64, but they will still watch when it’s 96 because Sports! Gambling!

 

[Orangezoo]

I agree it works for the NBA.

One thing for the argument overall is that NCAAB is the odd man out when you look at the pct of teams in major sports that make the post season professional or college. It's much lower by comparison.

 

[MSOrange]

One thing for the argument overall is that NCAAB is the odd man out when you look at the pct of teams in major sports that make the post season professional or college. It's much lower by comparison.

That would be the one argument for it. But when you look at the bottom 50 or so teams, one could question if they really should be playing Division 1 anyway.

 

[Orangezoo]

That would be the one argument for it. But when you look at the bottom 50 or so teams, one could question if they really should be playing Division 1 anyway.

Correct. Maybe the bottom 75/80 even

 

[RandygoCuse]

Everyone will say they want to keep it at 64, but they will still watch when it’s 96 because Sports! Gambling!

I'm not so sure the data supports that - do people watch the first four? No one ever includes it in their brackets.

 

[FrancoPizza]

I think 68 was a good move personally. The play in is fun and now you have the NBA picking it up.

The tough thing with expansion now is that there is so much uncertainty about the mega conference stuff that the landscape could change drastically and then that expansion itself has to be re evaluated and even possible retracted. Too much unknown.

What would be much better as we have all mentioned is a non conference matchup or two in February. We've already moved to early conference games so have a non conference/bracket fever week in February.

Put the regular season back to 26 games before we worry about the dance. Fewer games means individual games take on greater significance.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I'm not so sure the data supports that - do people watch the first four? No one ever includes it in their brackets.

The first four got 5.41 Million views according to this,

March Madness opening round nets 8.4m viewers in eight-year high - SportsPro

The NCAA March Madness men's basketball tournament sees viewership increase by 2% YoY on CBS Sports, TBS, TNT and TruTV.

www.sportspromedia.com

NBA playoffs averaged 4.71 million before the finals.

NBA playoff viewership riding high entering Finals

The NBA Playoffs has been a ratings hit through three rounds, with viewership the highest entering the Finals in more than a decade.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

 

[RandygoCuse]

The first four got 5.41 Million views according to this,

March Madness opening round nets 8.4m viewers in eight-year high - SportsPro

The NCAA March Madness men's basketball tournament sees viewership increase by 2% YoY on CBS Sports, TBS, TNT and TruTV.

www.sportspromedia.com

NBA playoffs averaged 4.71 million before the finals.

NBA playoff viewership riding high entering Finals

The NBA Playoffs has been a ratings hit through three rounds, with viewership the highest entering the Finals in more than a decade.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

I stand corrected - Out of curiosity, what does a "view" mean? Are people watching for a significant amount of time or just checking in?

 

[Cusefan0307]

I stand corrected - Out of curiosity, what does a "view" mean? Are people watching for a significant amount of time or just checking in?

I don’t pretend to know how they calculate ratings. It appears to be some sort of a wonky formula.

How Do Television Ratings Work?

A show that has several million viewers may seem popular to us, but a network may need millions more watching that program to make it a financial success. How do they figure out how many people are watching a show?

entertainment.howstuffworks.com

 

[RandygoCuse]

I don’t pretend to know how they calculate ratings. It appears to be some sort of a wonky formula.

How Do Television Ratings Work?

A show that has several million viewers may seem popular to us, but a network may need millions more watching that program to make it a financial success. How do they figure out how many people are watching a show?

entertainment.howstuffworks.com

Well, people are at least showing some interest in the games.

 

[bballbeadle]

There will always be a bubble, and it's not the bubble's fault we decided to take up residence on it for so long. Here's to hopefully complaining we're seeded too low instead of complaining our bubble burst.

I don’t care. I’ll take anything to make sure we are not on that freaking bubble, even if it’s the wrong thing!

 

[Scooch]

I stand corrected - Out of curiosity, what does a "view" mean? Are people watching for a significant amount of time or just checking in?

I don’t pretend to know how they calculate ratings. It appears to be some sort of a wonky formula.

How Do Television Ratings Work?

A show that has several million viewers may seem popular to us, but a network may need millions more watching that program to make it a financial success. How do they figure out how many people are watching a show?

entertainment.howstuffworks.com

TV ratings are quite simple, actually. What is reported is the audience for the average minute of a program.

In this case, a First Four game with 5.4 million viewers means that in the average minute of any of those 4 games, 5.4 million people were watching.

Now, we know that not everyone watches every minute of a game. So it might be that, say, 3 million people were watching in minute 1, and 8 million people were watching in minute 136 as the game was decided on a last second shot.

But what gets reported in the press is typically the average minute audience.

Hope that helps.

 

[Charbroil]

I’ve always been an opponent of expansion. It waters down the product. Unfortunately it’s only a matter of time before this becomes a 96 team tournament.

 

[jncuse]

They can keep it at 64, just reserved the last four spots for another 64 teams to compete, the "final 4" of the "bubble tournament" becomes the last 4 of the 64. The bubble tournament is the NIT.

April Madness?

 

[FrancoPizza]

I’ve always been an opponent of expansion. It waters down the product. Unfortunately it’s only a matter of time before this becomes a 96 team tournament.

Not to mention it would make selection Sunday - one of the highlights of the year - completely pointless.