When I think of March I immediately think of “Selection Sunday” and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Personally, I like watching the selection show and the opening round of the tournament more than the Super Bowl. The NCAA tournament is great because you have multiple schools trying to win their conference tournaments so they can get a shot at the “Big Dance” and a chance to be the next “Cinderella Story.” However, that could all change after this year.

Monday afternoon a story broke on sportsbybrooks.com that stated sources at ESPN and an administrator at an unnamed “powerhouse” college basketball school said the NCAA basketball tournament expanding to 96 teams is a “done deal.”

According to the Web site, an ESPN source said, “It’s a done deal with the expansion of the tournament. Depending on how soon a deal is done, the added teams could start next year. The NCAA confirmed that bidders would be interested in 96 teams, so they’re going with it.”

John Ourand and Michael Smith of Sportsbusiness Journal also reported that if the NCAA opts out of its current broadcast rights deal with CBS for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the governing body will consider “expanding from a 65-team tournament to either 68 or 96 teams.”

The NCAA-CBS broadcast rights contract has three years and $2.13 billion remaining. Sportsbusiness Journal reports, “The NCAA has until Aug. 31 to exercise its right, though it hopes to conclude the process much earlier.”

A 68-team field would add three games to the current 65-team tournament format and would allow for four “play-in” games. A 96-team field would add 31 games and another round to the tournament.

The 65-team set up is perfect and should only be expanded to 68 teams if expansion is necessary. The talk of moving to a 96-team field is disheartening to me as a college basketball fan because it makes the regular season even more meaningless if 31 more teams are allowed in. I think the tournament would lose popularity with a lot of fans because the expansion would “dilute” the field even more, and it may take away from some of the sense of accomplishment teams get by making a 65-team tournament as opposed to a 96-team tournament.

Plus, if the NCAA is going to drag out the NCAA tournament even more, causing student athletes to miss more class, how can it continue to justify not having a college football playoff? The NCAA needs to get its priorities straight; I would much rather see a college football playoff that decides a true champion on the field rather than an expansion of a tournament that already does that.

The only way I would be in favor of an expansion to 96 teams would be if the NCAA got rid of the post-season National Invitational Tournament and guaranteed those additional 31 spots would go to the regular season conference champions as a first priority.

When March comes I’m going to sit back, relax and enjoy this year’s tournament because it could very well be the last 65-team NCAA men’s basketball tournament that we ever witness. I guess that’s why they call it “March Madness.”