NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournament expansion is now official, as the governing body finalized its plan last Thursday.
We’ve written plenty here about expansion. Finally, we have more details about what it will entail.
A couple of the finer points include:
- A new 12‑game opening round will feature the 12 lowest automatic qualifiers and 12 lowest at‑large teams, with winners advancing to the Round of 64.
- The men will play their opening-round games in Dayton, Ohio, plus a second city. The women’s tournament will have opening round games on 12 of the top 16 seeds’ campuses.
- The expansion increases postseason access from 18% to 21% of D-I teams, and the NCAA projects this will generate over $131 million in additional revenue distributions over the next six years.
From a business perspective, the changes to the NCAA sponsorship program are perhaps the most fundamental and dramatic.
The NCAA noted explicitly that it will open the previously restricted categories of beer, wine, spirits and hard seltzer as part of its Corporate Champions and Partners Program.
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Other modifications provide for an expanded territory in which the NCAA may sell local sponsorships “that are materially differentiated from the NCAA Corporate Champions and Partners Program and limited to the designated market area where a championship is held.”
The NCAA may also pursue limited, sport-specific sponsorships with equipment companies whose products are being used with applicable championships (think STX and men’s lacrosse or Bauer and hockey).
Expansion is an expensive proposition. Funding the additional flights, hotels and host sites is something the NCAA needed covered, even if CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery/TNT Sports were not obligated to raise media rights fees as part of this. Consider the sponsorship the financial fix.
Will any of this appease fans or detractors? Probably not. Little in college sports these days happens with the fans’ best interests in mind. Expansion is just the latest example.
Then again, we’ll all surely be tuned in when the first-ever 12-team opening round tips off next year.
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