The "Big Dance." 65 teams in a single elimination "knockout" tournament spread over three weekends in March and April. Games are held at predetermined neutral sites across the country. The big economic news here is that this could be the last year of the much-loved 65 team format, which has been in place since 2001. The tournament had a 64 team format from 1985-2000. The NCAA generates about 90% of its operating revenue from the massive 13 year, $6 billion contract with CBS to televise this tournament. The NCAA/CBS contract is in year 10, and the NCAA has an opt-out clause following this year's tournament broadcast. Much speculation revolves around the NCAA exercising that option, putting the broadcast rights for future tournaments up for bid, and expanding the field to as many as 96 teams. A new auction and expanded field could substantially increase the value of the contract. The NCAA seems to have a strong incentive to change the format.
In a 2 paragraph response (a minimum of 5 sentences for each paragraph), answer the following questions. In paragraph # 1, discuss the pros and cons for NCAA tournament expansion to potentially 96 teams. Is this potential product development change a good or bad thing? Why or why not? Who would expansion benefit? Be specific in your thoughts. In paragraph # 2, although not mentioned in the introduction above, discuss how you feel about the the NCAA tournament being the only event where games can be seen live on the internet. Is it a good or bad thing? Good or bad for who? Hint. It's not all about the fans sometimes. Is anyone or anything else affected by this marketing strategy?
Please sign your name to the bottom of your blog entry.
If the NCAA expanded its tournament to 96 teams it could open up alot of doors. Its good becuase it would increase the chances that there would be upsets. Also it will bring in more money, becuase of the fans and appear being bought. Now with the broadcast rights for future tournaments up for bid, big television stations will pay big bucks to show the games. Expansion is huge, well for the schools because when a team gets into one of these games their school gets alot of money. Ofcourse there are alos some negatives, it could take away some of the competitive nature during the regular season. Meaning that teams know they wont have to keep as high as a record becuse there are so many more openings for teams to get in.
ReplyDeleteI think its a genious idea the NCAA tournament is the only event where the games are played live on the internet. It is so annoying when you arent by a television and you only have a computer, and you have to keep hitting the refresh button. Its bad for sponsors like CBS becuase some of its viewers will go on the computer opposed to watching it live. Television channels get ratings by the number of people watching live, with people on the cumputer that number will drop. I just think overall it will be more convenient if other sports would be played live on the internet.
Rod Colley
I personally this that the NCAA expanding the tournement to 96 teams would not be a smart move. March Madness is something that is looked upon as an elite event. Only the best 64 teams in college basketball have the chance to compete. This is a system that was set up to include the best regardless of division and i think it is perfect how it is. If there are too many teams in the tournament there will be a loss of interest. At least that is how i see this issue yea it gets more schools involved but it takes the elite status away from the event.
ReplyDeleteNow this aspect of the NCAA tournament is a great aspect of these games. Using the internet as a tool to watch the game can only help viewers. Sometimes people are in a buckle where a T.V. is not accessable at the moment and this is a way to keep everyone involved. Yes there may be some backlash from the television losing viewers to the internet but you have to take the good with the bad. I think live games on the internet are an amazing addition to the hype of these events.
Ej Rogers
This idea of expanding the tournament to 96 teams is outrageous. The want to change the beloved NCAA basketball tournament long before they change the format for NCAA football is a pure shame. With all these extra teams, meaning extra games, i believe it will eventually loose its demand. NCAA teams have tough schedules and high RPI's so they can compete in this tournament, if you add 31 more teams, the regular season and conference play will lose alot of revenue. The only benefit for this plan is the fact that now all the ACC and Big East teams can compete in the big dance, and just give more excuses to the mid-major schools for not making the big dance.
ReplyDeleteMedia coverage is always a good thing. Because there is already so many games, to be able to turn on the internet while at school or work and catch the end of a nail biting 8-9 match-up,is really what makes the NCAA tournament different. There is always a way to catch the upsets quickly, and always a way to watch your favorite college team compete in the dance, because the vast improvement of technology.
-Josh Knupp
The pros in cons of ncaa expanding.if the games get exspandet thats a good thing. the reason for saying is because it would bring more money. the games would be more publicity an what not.It would be bad because the money that is being spent in all the stuff that goes along.
ReplyDeletei feel that there should be more then just ncaa gsmes on the internet. even thow these games are watched by many. but seeing that there are so many games its a good thing to be on the internet. thats how i feel about this article
for the NCAA to expand to a 96 team i think is a smart move. If they were to expand this would open the tournament up to teams who are more likely to lose but help bring in revune for the team and its tv broadcaster. although doing so would make the competition a lot more competetive especially to teams that do well durijng there regular season and then just barley miss the cut to play in the tournament.with more teams comes more fans. more fans comes more revenues for those teams that fans are routing for and buying their product to support their team.
ReplyDeletebeing the only tournament being showed live on the internet i think is a bad thing because this is not fair to othersports that are not being showed. on the other hand this is kind of a wake up call to those sports that are not being showed to let them know that the future is now and that they need to start showing those sports on the internet. if they make it a type of ubscription package where they can generate a large profit from those peope that can't be near a tv and have acces to the internet on their computer so that they cana watch wherever they go other than their cell phones. the phone in my opinion is hust to small to wtch tv on. especially on the road where the screen is shaking in your hand but on your computer streamuig the internet stragiht to your computer so that you can watch without too much interference.
In my opinion, expanding the NCAA Tournament into a 96 team tournament would bea good thing. The only bad thing I could think of is that it would take longer to complete the tournament (but some could argue that it would be good to play longer if they loved college basketball). The pros include more teams getting invited, and more money would be made through the contract they have with CBS.
ReplyDeleteAs for the games being aired live on the internet, I think it has good affects and bad affects. This will make the games more available to the consumers and it will be easily accessible. However, this could compete with the contract that the NCAA Tournament has with CBS. With more people watching online, less will be watching t\on the television. This might be something that the NCAA wants to adress.
-Nick
The NCAA plan to expand to ninety six teams is in favor of their business. This would increase the amount of revenue due to tickets sold and other activities that would be carried out when all the teams play. Despite the benefit, the games will be monotonous and fans may easily loose interest of watching. The television business will suffer more of the disadvantages, the amount of money paid for the contract will increase ones the expansion is done. There will be healthy competition among television broadcasters which will definitely inflate the contract’s amount
ReplyDeleteNCAA tournaments being the only games watched on internet will affect the stadium hosting the events. Many people will stay home since they can watch the game online rather than pay go twenty mile to watch the same event paying more money. However, this will good for the fans, they will spend little or no money to watch the tournaments.
I feel that the NCAA making the tournement to 96 schools would be a great idea. This could make more money because there would be more games to watch. It might make the March Madness the whole month of March. Expanding the tournement to 96 teams would allow more teams to get in to the event and have a shot at winning at least a few games. The expanding would benfit the teams thats almost make it every year but fall short.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the NCAA's March Madness being the only event that you can see live on the internet is a great idea because it allows people that are not able to travel to the game as well as see on T.V. theright to watch the game. This idea will allow the NCAA to have the top amount of viewers watching there teams play. As the teams get to less and less more people start watching the event if someone is at work and is unable to see a T.V. they would still be able to watch the games.
- Mike
The NCAA tournament expansion for 96 teams is a good thing because of the introduction of the new teams. Adding teams will provide for a wider selection for economic growth within the NCAA. It is bad because it just might be too many teams to keep track of. Different teams will have to be split up or categorized into different groupings to keep track of all 96 teams. Expansion would benefit the NCAA because they’re recognition will soon expand with a variety of different teams.
ReplyDeleteI think it is an advantage to the NCAA because viewers and speculators rely on one tournament only to see the games, the NCAA. It is bad for anyone who does not have internet access though and this will be a problem with getting everyone that is interested to see the games. So it does actually affect the NCAA in a bad way too, viewers are not being included in the games.
Brittnee K.
If the NCAA expands the teams up to 96 would not be a very well decision made.March Madness is an event that comes around March every year to see what team is the best. The 96 teams could lead up to more fans being involved in the NCAA March Madness. Also it could become a loss of money for them because of how so many teams are participating in the next tournament next year. It could go either way for them next year in the March Madness event.
ReplyDeleteThe NCAA tournament has an option on where you could watch the game on the internet. I believe this is a great tool for people who dont have T.V's at home. As there is alot of people watching the NCAA tournament at their houses there is also a loss to the T.V viewers. This leads to less views on the T.V which could actually have been higher because of the internet option they offer.
Brian Villazon
The potential product development change is a good thing and a bad thing. It is a good thing because it get more teams involved with more publicity and it get more fans involved which makes more money. It can be a bad thing because having this many teams can make the people that do not enjoy basketball bored. Also, it takes the elite teams out of the game.
ReplyDeleteThis is the only sport where games can be seen live on the internet. This is big because the is a good way to attract fans and promote the NCAA march madness. This is a good thing for basketball fans or just sports fans at that. It is a bad thing for some fans too because there will be way more teams competing in it. There are other people affected by this and that is the players. Its the players because they would have to play more games and there would be more upsets.
Kjabbie10
If the NCAA expanded the tournament to have 96 teams many good things would happen. There would be an increase in revenue from ticket sales and apparel sales. there would also be more games on TV so the station would make more money when the ratings go up from the increased ammount of viewers. The schools also make money just by entering in the tournament.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is bad for all other sports that the NCAA tournament is the only event were the games are broadcast live on the internet. I think that it would be better if every sport could broadcast their games live on the internet. I think that if you broadcast the games on the internet that more people will be able to watch them and this would help boost interest in the sport which could increase ticket and apparell sales. So i think that all games should be able to be broadcast live on the internet.