Danny Snell

May 11, 2014

WRIT 116 - 117 Bailey
The Future of the Madness Tournament Expansion
March Madness is a very special time of year. It is when thousands of student athletes get
the chance to compete in one of the biggest and most popular sporting events ever, and teams
fight in a single elimination tournament to make all their work throughout the regular season pay
off. The NCAA makes a lot of money every year on this event. In fact, the majority of the
money that they make annually actually comes from Division I mens basketball, above all the
other college sports. Not only that, but NCAA March Madness actually brings in more ad
revenue than any other post-season of any sporting league including the NFLs Super Bowl, the
NBA Finals, and the MLBs World
Series. With $1.15 billion of ad
spending from 65 games the 2013
tournament beat the 11-game NFL
playoffs by over $50 million and the
NBA post-season by $223 million
(Polidoro). Because of its popularity,
there is a lot of pressure on the NCAA
every March to make sure the
tournament something special.
First of all, it is important to know about the history of the tournament. For the past
decades, there were 64 teams in the tournament. After the first and second rounds, it would be
down to 16 teams, hence the Sweet Sixteen. After that, it would move on to the Elite Eight, Final
Four, and of course, the National Championship. A few years ago, however, the tournament was
expanded to 68 teams, and a play-in round was added to the tournament, and that is still the
way things are today. Before the first official round, there are now four play-in games, and the
winners of these four games move on to be in the tournament. These teams usually are lower
rated teams that could go either way as far as being invited to the tournament. Because of this
extra aspect of the tournament, it allows for more teams to be involved, and more teams in this
great tournament is a big deal. It means more bets for all the gamblers, more money for all the
casinos that host these bets, more schools that gain revenue for their admittance into the event,
more money for sponsors, and more players that get to further their careers. But most of all, it
increases the revenue of the NCAA. But when is the line drawn? Revenue is a huge theme in the
March Madness tournament, and How far is too far? is a huge question, and nobody really
knows the answer.
There is always a lot of theories, opinions, and criticism that fly around, especially in
March, about how tournament expansion should be handled. Many believe that if more teams
would lead to more games, which would lead to more money in the end. And that seems to make
sense. That being said, if many more teams were added to the bracket, the games would not be
as special. Games would hold less meaning if it were just another game. Nobody really pays
attention to the play-in games as it is, so making more play-in games would not really help the
situation. And you also have to look at how the tournament has resulted historically. The seeds
of the tournament range from 1 to 16, and they play each other in the first round of 64 teams. A
16 seed has never beaten a 1 seed in the history of the NCAA tournament, so if we add more
teams to the tournament, there is no reason for a 17 or 18 seeded team to be able to either. If you
look at the graph on the next page, it shows how teams in each seed group has fared in every
round of the tournament. This chart was put together by a columnist from Bleacher Report who
is called Barking Carnival, also known as Drew Dunlevie. The 64-team tournament already is
bloated beyond necessity for this task. Adding another 32 teams only compounds the issue, and
will degrade the prestige that should accompany the playoffs (Dunlevie).

The data shows that lower seeds basically just get weeded out right away. Statistically, one could
argue that adding more teams to the bracket would just be make it worse. So the line needs to be
drawn somewhere as far as how many teams should be in the bracket, and it is not an easy
decision. The impact can affect so many different aspects of March Madness. Maybe the line
should be drawn exactly where it is, at 68 teams, and no more action is necessary. Or maybe it
should be increased to 96. Or 128. All of these have been ideas that were considered, but nothing
has been done.
Tournament expansion has raised so many flags among college sports fans that other
sports have begun to consider this change too. College football will be featuring a bracketed
tournament for the first time in the upcoming 2014 season. That had been a big controversy too,
considering they have always played bowl games all through history. Even lacrosse has begun to
expand their playoff tournament in effort to advance the sport and gain popularity.
Needless to say, tournament expansion is quite the quandary. The decision has a huge
impact on college basketball, but also the athletic programs of many Division I schools. Smaller
schools put a lot of funds into their basketball programs, so they have a lot riding on that.
Obviously, basketball is just a game. But this tournament affects way more than the game of
basketball. It affects athletic directors, coaches, student athletes, fans, and colleges around the
nation. Lets just hope that the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament can carry on the
tradition and continue having success year after year.

Works Cited
Brennan, Eamonn. "Let Us Never Speak of Expansion Again." College Basketball Nation.
ESPN, 6 Mar. 2011. Web. 8 Apr. 2014.
<http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/tag/_/name/ncaa-tournament-
expansion>.
Dohrmann, George. "Four Reasons Why NCAA Tourney Expansion Would Be Horrible." Inside
College Basketball. Sports Illustrated, 2 Mar. 2010. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
<http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/george_dohrmann/02/24/no.expansion/>.
Dunlevie, Drew. "Expansion to 96 Teams Is Real March Madness." Bleacher Report. N.p., 22
Mar. 2010. Web. 11 May 2014. <http://bleacherreport.com/articles/366880-expansion-to-
96-teams-is-real-march-madness>.
Goodman, Jeff. "A 96-Team Tourney Would Be a Fiasco." Fox Sports. MSN, 14 Mar. 2011.
Web. 10 Apr. 2014. <http://msn.foxsports.com/collegebasketball/story/Expanding-to-a-
96-team-NCAA-tournament-would-be-a-fiasco-031411>.
Levin, Josh. "One Striking Moment." Sports Nut. Slate, 19 Mar. 2014. Web. 8 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2014/03/ncaa_tournament_strike_the_o
pening_thursday_of_march_madness_is_the_perfect.html>.
Murschel, Matt. "NCAA Has No Plans to Expand Tourney Field despite Deep Pool of Talent."
NCAA Tournament Orlando. Orlando Sentinel, 12 Feb. 2014. Web. 8 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/blogs/ncaa-tournament-orlando/os-ncaa-
basketball-tournament-expansion-20140212,0,7447127.post>.
"NCAA: 96-Team Field Is Best Fit." ESPN Men's Basketball. Associated, 2 Apr. 2010. Web. 10
Apr. 2014. <http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/tournament/2010/news/story?id=5047800>.
Polidoro, Ronnie. "NCAA's March Madness, Brackets Pull in More than Just Fans." Nightly
News. NBC, 10 Mar. 2014. Web. 11 May 2014. <http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-
news/ncaas-march-madness-brackets-pull-more-just-fans-n57501>.
Puls, Jonah. "NCAA Tournament Expansion: Why 96 Teams Would Have Been a Good Thing."
Bleacher Report. N.p., 24 Apr. 2010. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
<http://bleacherreport.com/articles/383645-ncaa-tournament-expansion-why-96-teams-
would-have-been-a-good-thing>.
Steele, David. "Why Expanding the NCAA Tournament to 128 Teams Is a Horrible Idea."
Syracuse.com. Sporting News, 29 Feb. 2012. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
<http://blog.syracuse.com/sports/2012/02/128_teams_in_the_big_dance_a_t.html>.
Thamel, Pete. "The NCAA's Real Problem? Lack of Leadership, Starting with Mark Emmert."
Inside College Basketball. Sports Illustrated, 7 Apr. 2014. Web. 8 Apr. 2014.
<http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/-college-basketball-mens-
tournament/news/20140407/ncaa-mark-emmert/>.
Wojciechowski, Gene. "Expand the NCAA Tourney? Heresy!" ESPN.com. ESPN, 11 Feb. 2010.
Web. 8 Apr. 2014.
<http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?page=wojciechowski/100211>.