The New and Slightly Improved March Madness Schedule

As a college hoops junkie, I obviously love March Madness.  The NCAA Tournament is one of the greatest events in all of sports.  That's why it was so frustrating last year when they were tossing around this idea of expanding it to 96 teams this season.  They evidently didn't listen to the old mantra," If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  (Are you listening Roger Baddell?  18 games=bad!)  Either they listened to the outpouring of negative response or were just throwing it out there knowing that they weren't going to do it to see what the reaction would be.  Anyway, they decided to go with the relatively modest three-team expansion to 68.  I'm still not a fan of the expanded tournament, but we'll get into that with another blog as it gets closer.  Today's post is actually designed as one of praise for the new NCAA Tournament TV schedule.

One of the big things that the NCAA wanted in its new TV contract was dropping the regional coverage so that fans would be able to see every game live in its entirety.  CBS obviously isn't able to do that (for obvious reasons), so Turner stepped in as CBS's partner.  Now all 67 games will be aired live nationally on either CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV (I'd never heard of this channel until the deal was announced, and I'm still not sure I get it, but the NHL's on Versus and nobody knows whether or not they get that channel either).  This is a good thing.

They just released the time schedule for the entire tournament, and it's going to be wall-to-wall basketball from noon-midnight on all four days during the first weekend.  I'm guessing they're going to wait until the bracket is set and they know who's playing where before they decide which games will be on which networks, but the general schedule looks pretty good.  They'll still have four noon doubleheaders and four 7:00 doubleheaders on Thursday and Friday (with the time adjusted for the afternoon games on the West Coast), but instead of having them all tip-off at roughly the same time and CBS splitting the games regionally, CBS is only going to be at one of the four sites.  TBS will be at another.  TNT will be at the third, and truTV will be at the fourth.  All four games will still be happening simultaneously, but they'll be a little more staggered, and you can now choose which game you want to watch instead of having CBS decide for you.

The big change is on the weekend, though.  Saturday's quadrupleheader on CBS remains, but the other four games are now on TBS and TNT.  But the big change is on Sunday.  The three Turner networks don't have to worry about new episodes of 60 Minutes and The Amazing Race (one of my favorite shows) on Sunday nights, so there will now be Sunday night NCAA Tournament games!  This is probably the most significant positive change out of the new NCAA Tournament TV deal and schedule.  The Sunday night sports slate is usually pretty barren in March.  ESPN will continue to show the women's tournament on Sunday night, but that's really the only other sports option at that time.  Just imagine the ratings TBS and TNT will get for these Sunday night games! 

In week two, CBS and TBS split the Sweet 16 games, while CBS gets the Elite Eight and Final Four.  The Final Four will stay on CBS until 2015, when it will start alternating with TBS every year.  I'm not really the biggest fan of this part of the plan, though.  The Final Four should be on broadcast television.  It's one of those events that should be available to everyone, even if they don't have cable.  I realize that the number of people who don't have cable is about three in the entire country, but my point remains.  And maybe I'm making a big deal about nothing.  TNT and ESPN/ABC have been splitting the conference finals in the NBA for a couple years, and TBS and FOX split baseball's LCS's, and both of those situations seem to be working out fine without really much of an uproar.  But the difference with those leagues is that the NBA Finals are still always on ABC, and the World Series is still only on FOX.  This is why I don't think ESPN will ever get the U.S. Olympic rights, but that's another blog.

And in a smart move, the NCAA is utilizing the same graphics across the board, no matter which network the game's on.  That makes a ton of sense, seeing as they still need eight different production crews.  The games just won't be split regionally.  They'll be on four different channels.  But the idea of keeping everything consistent is a good idea.  The announcers will also be consistent.  There are a couple of changes to work in the Turner guys (Marv Albert's doing some of the games, which is a very, very good thing), but for the most part, it'll be the same NCAA Tournament coverage we're all used to.

I will miss those awesome NCAA Tournament Thursday afternoons where I'd have one game on the office TV, with another game on my computer, the third on my laptop, and the fourth on another computer in the office.  But I'm sure I'll survive.  While I'm still lukewarm on the idea of a 68-team field, it's a lot easier to deal with than the ridiculous 96-team monstrosity they threatened us with.  But the four-network, live coverage of every game thing is easy to get on board with.  And I give the NCAA credit for listening to the fans and giving us what we want.  Are you listening, Roger?