INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA has decided not to mess around too much with March Madness.
College sports’ largest governing body announced a 14- year, $10.8 billion deal with CBS and Turner Broadcasting on Thursday that will begin with an expanded men’s basketball tournament next March. But instead of jumping to a 96-team field, a possibility that drew criticism from bracket- obsessed fans to coaches, the NCAA plans to expand by only three teams, from 65 to 68.
Every game will be broadcast live nationally for the first time in the tournament’s 73- year history.
“It was a goal from the very, very beginning. I believe it’s what our membership wanted, and it’s what our fans wanted across the country,” NCAA interim president Jim Isch said. “I think without question, it was one of the driving factors in our position and why CBS and Turner make such great partners.”
Striking a balance was a challenge for NCAA officials.
The previous television deal, which gave CBS Sports the broadcast rights for $6 billion over 11 years, would have expired in three years. Both sides had opt-out clauses that had to be exercised by July 31, and the NCAA was preparing to do just that. The hope was to create a bidding war and strike a lucrative deal, generating more money for NCAA payouts to schools.
CBS Sports won the war, beating out at least an offer from ESPN.
What’s new is that CBS will share broadcast rights with Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting System Inc. and its stable of cable channels — TNT, TBS and truTV — from 2011-24.
The NCAA won too: Isch said the new deal will provide an average of $740 million per year that will be returned to conferences and schools.
The tournament hasn’t expanded since 2001, when it added one team to a 64-team field that was established in 1985.
Next Thursday, the NCAA board of directors can approve a plan that is likely to add three more opening-round games — one in each region — to the one that has been played since 2001.
“We are very comfortable with 68, that’s what the deal is based on and it meets all our financial needs and programming needs,” said Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports.
