The NCAA Tournament is expanding to 76 teams. You don't like it. I don't like it. No one except coaches and administrators likes it. Yet, it's coming, so we have to adjust to what's here. There will be other think pieces about how bad this is for college basketball. Rest assured about that. However, this piece will be a constructive attempt to adjust the scheduling and TV logistics around a 76-team March Madness field.
What was the First Four is now going to be the First 12. It might not be officially branded as such, but that's essentially what we will have. There will be 12 play-in games instead of only four to accommodate expansion from 68 teams to 76. Eight more teams into the play-in round with eight more opponents. All told, 24 teams will play in the play-in round before the Round of 64.
Dayton is the First Four site. Obviously, it will remain an anchor site for the play-in round, but now a Western or Central Plains site will be needed to supplement Dayton. Expect any of Denver, Kansas City, Salt Lake City, or Albuquerque to be used as a partner site for the First 12, possibly on a rotating basis.
The First Four had one game on at one time. There was an early evening game around 6:40 p.m Eastern time followed by a night game around 9:15 p.m. With the expansion to the First 12, there will have to be daytime basketball on the Tuesday and Wednesday before the Round of 64 on the traditional Thursday and Friday. This is one of the complications CBS and Turner, as March Madness broadcasters, must face.
It will be a huge headache for a Western site -- let's say Denver -- to have a Tuesday midday/late morning game after the Sunday evening selection show. That's a very short turnaround. When thinking about a schedule plan, there might need to be three First 12 sites, not just two. Maybe one in the West but also one in the South or South Central Plains. Imagine this: Dayton, Dallas, and Salt Lake City. Or: Dayton, Kansas City, Denver. Or: Dayton, New Orleans, Albuquerque.
If there are three First 12 sites instead of two, we could probably maintain a lot of the current NCAA Tournament structure. Dayton -- being the Eastern site -- could have its games first at 12:30, 3, 5:30, and 8 Eastern. The South or South Central Plains site could go second at 2, 4:30, 7, and 9:30. The Western site could then go at 3:15, 5:45, 8:15, and 10:45 Eastern -- the late game starts at 7:45 p.m. Pacific, which is entirely reasonable.
Teams playing in the late-night games on Tuesday and Wednesday would absolutely have to play in the late-night Round of 64 games on Thursday and Friday. This must be an ironclad requirement, non-negotiable.
If there are only two First 12 sites, those locations (Dayton and the Western site) will have to host six games each, three apiece on Tuesday and Wednesday. Dayton, as the Eastern site, would have to host the Tuesday games in the daytime since -- as mentioned above -- a Western site could not realistically host games played in late-morning (local time) hours on the Tuesday after Selection Sunday. On Wednesday, the Western site could host games in the midday hours so that Dayton could get night games as part of this expanded package.
If college basketball doesn't want daytime Tuesday games after Selection Sunday, it would obviously choose to play all the First 12 games in the evening or at night. However, there's another way to do this: Do away with Sunday conference tournament games. Have all the conference tournaments end on Saturday. Have the selection show Sunday at noon Eastern time so that teams can get to their Tuesday sites much earlier.
Having conference tournament finals on Selection Sunday is pointless. Might as well make this change anyway.
With 24 play-in teams, will March Madness have various 10 seeds play each other, various 11 seeds play each other, and various 12 seeds play each other? Or, will 10s play 12s while 11s play 11s?
Will we see any power conferences move their tournaments up one day to have a Friday night championship game to ensure more rest before the play-in round?
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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: March Madness Expansion: How TV, game schedules should change