Visser: NCAA Officials Says Expansion 'Will Happen,' Likely in '11

CBS Sports reporter Lesley Visser said NCAA officials told network representatives last week that the tournament's expansion to 96 teams "will happen most likely next year."

In an interview on the Fabulous Sports Babe radio show on ESPN 1040-AM in Tampa, Fla., Visser said Thursday the decision also would mean the elimination of the NIT tournament.

However, Big East commissioner John Marinatto told FanHouse Friday that no formal decision to expand the NCAA tournament to 96 teams has been reached.

Visser said NCAA tournament selection committee chairman Dan Guerrero and Greg Shaheen, senior vice president of basketball and business strategies for the NCAA, met with NCAA and CBS officials last week in New York. They indicated the expansion would occur "most likely next year."

"I do know this: the head of the selection committee, Dan Guerrero, who's the UCLA AD (Athletic Director), and also Greg Shaheen ... they came and spoke to our NCAA CBS seminar," Visser said. "Ninety-six will happen, most likely next year."

---

---

Visser said one reason for the expansion is schools would rather play in the NCAA tournament than the NIT, which currently invites 32 teams after the 65-team NCAA bracket is filled.

"They [the NCAA] also oversee the NIT," Visser said during the interview. "Well as you know, it's not the most popular event for schools to go to. Schools would rather go to the NCAA tournament.



Share "What Greg Shaheen found when they went around speaking to university presidents, coaches and ADs -- they've been on this idea since 2004, this is not a sudden event or sudden consideration -- and they found as Greg Shaheen said and I quote him 'without exception, university presidents, ADs and coaches want to go to 96.' And it can't be more than that: 96 is the one that fits."

Marinatto, in his first year as the Big East's commissioner, said no decision has been reached about expanding the NCAA tournament.

"Since no 96-team model has formally been advanced to the membership for review and consideration, we as a conference have not formed an official league position," Marinatto told FanHouse.

Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said in a Monday teleconference he's "open-minded" about expanding the NCAA tournament.

"After a lot of discussion, we have to at least be open-minded," Beebe said. "I would be negligent not to look at all opportunities and I think we do have to do that. The NCAA staff, I've encouraged them to take their show on the road, so to speak, and allow a lot of conferences to see what their thinking is.

"They've done a good job of outlining how this would work in combination with pulling the NIT tournament into the NCAA tournament."

In 1985, the NCAA tournament expanded from 48 to 64 teams. A 65th team was added in 2001 when the number of automatic bids increased from 30 to 31.

The NCAA's TV deal with CBS runs through the 2013 tournament, but the NCAA has until July 31 to opt out. CBS' current deal averages $461 million annually, but in the next three years CBS will pay an average of about $710 million, USA Today reported. If the NCAA leaves CBS, it would almost certainly go to ESPN.

"What [the NCAA] found from the university presidents, of which they represent -- it's not what we in the media think, it's what the university presidents think and that's what the NCAA must reflect what their members want and their members want expansion," Visser told the Tampa radio station.

Several Big East coaches, including Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, Villanova's Jay Wright and Georgetown's John Thompson III, said throughout this season that they support expanding the NCAA tournament. Boeheim has been the most vocal about expanding the NCAA tournament.

Marinatto said if the NCAA tournament is expanded his 16-team league could make history.

"If [expansion is] ever adopted, I believe the Big East could very well have 16 schools participate in any given year," Marinatto said.

This year, the Big East received a combined 13 bids to the NCAA and NIT tournaments, including a record eight NCAA berths.

Contact FanHouse senior writer Brett McMurphy at brettmcmurphy@gmail.com.