Swofford: expand tourney
- Thread starter TIGER-PAUL
- Start date
I don't mind adding an extra 4 teams. Its really hard to make the NCAA Tournament. Basically, only the Top 45 teams or so make it because of the auto bids. Personally, I think 68 is enough but wouldn't mind 72.
More importantly, and I've been saying this for years, they need to move the tournament back a day which would accomplish some important things;
- Have the Selection Show in primetime 8PM, Sunday night, gives enough time for the committee to digest the Sunday games
- Start the First Four (or First 8) on Wednesday. The Tuesday turnaround is too short. It comes around too soon for the teams but also the fans. The extra day is needed for the "buildup.:
- 1st/2nd Rounds should be Fri/Sun and Sat/Mon. You could still get 8 2nd Round games in on Monday night starting at 6PM in 3 windows. East 6/8:30, South 7, 9:30, MW, 8/10:30, West, 8:30/11. This would help ratings because it moves Thursday 1st Round games to Saturday. And moves 2nd Round to Monday night, the best TV ratings night of the week.
- Regionals should also be Fri/Sun and Sat/Mon. This would allow for the Saturday Sweet 16 games to be played in 4 different time slots.
Top 45 teams making it is enough for me.
On the ACC TV network, any word if you could buy it ala carte digitally -- or will it only be part of cable packages?
On the ACC TV network, any word if you could buy it ala carte digitally -- or will it only be part of cable packages?
The tournament is already too big, too many teams. Cut it back to 48 max.
No. Absolutely not. We do not need more mediocre teams in the tournament.
I can only think of this when someone mentions expanding the field
I don't think so. Can you get the SEC network that way(don't think you can)? The ACCN going to be the same so they say.
Ah too bad. I assume the cable companies push for an exclusivity contract in order to carry the ACC channel to protect against cord cutters? HBO has managed to go the dual route.
ESPN tipped its toes in the stream-only market. For $4.99 per month, you can get a bunch of crap on ESPN+. Its only a matter of time until they move content from ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ACCN, SECN, etc to ESPN+ for an increased price. Give it maybe 2-3 years
The solution to the stupidity that is 68 isn't 72, it's 64.
I don’t think the Tourney ever hurts for ratings. I’m hoping they never mess with the Thursday/Friday first round days.
I am interested to see how the sports betting ruling impacts the NCAA. They seem habitually behind when it comes to being just and policing their own members (e.g. UNC, Louisville). Now you add the money to be made legally off sports betting, they will find a way to screw this up. The amount of money wagered before on The NCAAT before was ridiculous. Legal gambling and increased participation from schools? Follow the money to the ruin of my favorite sporting event for sure.
Whole lotta folks are gonna get rich(er). Except, you know, the "student" athletes.
I think if any league needs to worry about players throwing games, it's in college.
Wouldn't having 1st Round games on a Saturday be better? You dont have to call off work or school to watch.
Then you’d have to call off Monday. What’s the difference. Just keep it how it has always been.
No, you wouldn't
NE venue: 6 and 8:30
SE venue: 7 and 9:30
MW venue: 7:30 and 10
West venue: 8 and 10:30
8 games, 3 TV windows: 6/7, 7:30/8/8:30, 9:30/10/10:30. Monday night is the best night for ratings.
Would CBS want to run March Madness over The Big Bang Theory etc.? That's a night they already get great ratings on.
Monday is a great TV night so yea it wouldn't be ideal to have college basketball games instead of whatever their regular Monday night lineup is. However, in the current format, they do Thursday night 1st Round games instead of their Thursday night lineup and those games are much lower-rated than 2nd Round games due to the quality/competitiveness but also the fact they are up against 3 other NCAAT games plus NBA/NHL. Monday is a slow night for the NBA/NHL and they'd only be up against 1 2nd Round game at the same time.
I mean, without any doubt a Friday-Monday 1st/2nd Round would be a win for everybody but sometimes things stay the same just because that's the way its always been done.
I'm guessing that more want the carolina, ny, dc rotation and maybe also digging around more about msg first.
One of the reasons that they like Thursday is because on a per viewer basis advertising dollars are much higher on Thursday than they are on any other day of the week. If you have two shows, one on Monday and one on Thursday, and they get the exact same ratings and the exact same demo numbers the show on Thursday will almost certainly make more money, and in many case will make a lot more money, than the show on Monday.
Sometimes things stay the same because some people know more about how things work than a random person on the internet. Imagine that.
Commercials are sold as a "tournament package." So, Enterprise pays X amount of dollars for the entire tournament regardless of network. If I am an advertiser, a tournament which plays on only 1 weekday afternoon is more valuable than one which plays on 2 weekday afternoons.
Also, in my plan, it would allow 4 separate Sweet 16 windows for the Saturday/Monday regionals spread out over Saturday instead of cramming 2 into Thursday night. That is more valuable to advertisers.
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