The NCAA Tournament expanded, but not the way we all thought

Earlier today, news was leaked that the NCAA had reached an agreement with CBS and Turner Broadcasting on a 14 year deal worth $10.8 billion to televise the NCAA tournament.

The news had most of us accepting our fate: that the NCAA Tournament would officially be expanding to 96 teams today.

Well, that lasted until the NCAA put out its official release:

Late Wednesday, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee unanimously passed a recommendation to the Division I Board of Directors to increase tournament field size to 68 teams beginning with the 2011 Championship.

All that talk about 96 teams? All that worrying? All those doomsday scenarios? The watered down NCAA Tournament? The end of a meaningful regular season in college basketball?

It all gets pushed to the back burner for at least a year, as the 2011 NCAA Tournament -- and hopefully possibly more tournaments in the future -- will be played with just three additional teams.

Is this what the new tournament will look like?

The basics:

• CBS opted out of the remaining three years of their current deal -- valued at $545 million a year -- for a 14 year deal worth right around $770 million per year. For the first time ever, every tournament game will be aired live on TV. CBS, TBS, TNT, and TruTV will share duties, and all four stations will use the same CBS television graphics and music we have become accustomed to. The only difference is that the CBS logo will be a TBS/TNT/TruTV logo.
  
• March Madness On Demand, which airs every game on a live-stream over the internet, will still be available. The only difference is that it appears that instead of the MMOD online studio hosts, each network's studio will be used.


• There will be four play-in games in the 68 team field. The question is who will be involved in the play-in games (more on that in a later post).


• The Final Four will be aired on CBS until 2016, when CBS and TBS will alternate years until the end of the deal in 2024.
  


• "For now." "Everything is on the table." Those are the quotes to remember, which came form the lips of NCAA president Jim Isch. There is no guarantee that a 68 team field will last more than one season. From Dana O'Neil:

  Sean McManus, president of CBS News and CBS Sports, added that, "We have flexibility in our deal to accommodate expansion if that happens," and Shaheen said that the new television agreement left field size totally at the discretion of the NCAA.

  So don't think that 96 is out of the question.

There are still a number of issues to be ironed out.

Who will be playing in the play-in games? Where will the play-in games be played? Does anyone know what "TruTV" is, and is it in HD? Can we ink Gus Johnson for a 14 year contract as well? Hell, this decision isn't even official yet. It is a proposal that the NCAA Board of Officials still has to approve on April 29th.

That doesn't matter.

What matters is that the NCAA is not pushing for a 96 team tournament just yet, which means that, for at least the short term, our beloved tournament is still recognizable.