Show me the money

In a capitalist society, money drives everything. The need for profit trumps all else.

Unfortunately, that mentality has seeped into the NCAA and the college basketball world. The NCAA isn’t even shy about masking the fact that consideration of NCAA tournament expansion is all about the dollar signs.

“The opportunity to decide what’s going to happen with our revenue is a big deal,” said Greg Shaheen, the NCAA’s senior vice president for basketball and business strategies, in an interview with the New York Times. “It’s what a lot of institutions rely on for their athletic programs. That’s a centerpiece to why all this happens. It’s easy to say you don’t want change. But simply put, it’s what’s appropriate to operate in our best interest.”

This year, CBS will pay the NCAA $750 million just to broadcast March Madness. But that deal is set to change. The ESPN mothership has its eye on March and will pony up what they need to in order to get a share of the event.

So this is what it’s come down to. The world’s greatest sporting event is likely going to be altered by men in business suits, and that’s a shame.

Another argument for tournament expansion is that 59 teams have been added to Division I since the last change to 65 in 1985. Proponents of expansion say the tournament needs to reflect that addition. That’s a moot point.

College basketball blogger Kyle Whelliston developed a “Red Line” that separates mid-major and high-major conferences based on overall athletic budgets. By his definition, there are eight high-major conferences, heavy hitters like the SEC, ACC, and Big 12, and 24 mid-major conferences.

It’s also interesting to note that the NCAA tournament is the only championship event where the NCAA doesn’t keep the profits; they feed it back to the schools and conferences based on how well they do. The only problem is that the schools that do well are already at the top.

This year, 26 mid-major teams made the NCAA tournament – 24 automatic qualifiers and two at-large bids. So, three-fourths of the NCAA Division I conferences made up for just 40 percent of the tournament field.

To sum it up: the schools with lots of money are arguing that since there are more schools with little money, they need to expand the tournament so that the rich get richer. The small guys are being used for the profit and gain of the big boys.

The little guys can play ball too – just remember Northern Iowa, St. Mary’s and Cornell last weekend – and expansion could make the gap so big that “Cinderella” could become an extinct concept.