CBS men's basketball analyst: 68 teams is 'plenty' without March Madness expansion

Wally Szczerbiak, an analyst for CBS Sports' coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, made the case for expanding the field of March Madness participants from 68.

Even Szczerbiak, a 10-year NBA veteran and All-Star with the Minnesota Timberwolves, boiled the argument down to a money grab.

That's fine by the powers that be in the NCAA — specifically the conference commissioners. The Big 12's Brett Yormark recently said he would be in favor of expanding the field to 76 teams.

But for Szczerbiak, who starred at Miami University and has been with CBS Sports since 2010, any expansion would have to be done with careful consideration to the wildly popular tournament.

"I'm a traditional guy, so change always has to be thought of very carefully," Szczerbiak said in a new interview with Austin Karp and Mollie Cahillane on the Sports Media Podcast. "There might be a reason to do it. The way the tournament is operating now is awesome. To me, you get 68 teams. That's plenty. When I played, in 1999, the tournament was 64. I think the play-in has added a little bit of drama. I think that's one of the reasons people are asking for more expansion, because of the drama the play-in has brought."

"Ultimately, if you can not sacrifice the end product — which is the Final Four, the Sweet Sixteen — and you don't water down the first couple rounds leading to the Sweet Sixteen, the Final Four and the Elite Eight, and you can generate more revenue, maybe it makes sense," Szczerbiak continued. "That is something that — I'm not behind the scenes running CBS, running TNT, running the NCAA — so that's not for me to decide.

"I like it the way it is, but if you expand it's going to lead to more revenue that can be shared around to all parties, then I think it could possibly make sense."

Szczerbiak finished his career at Miami University as the program's second all-time leading scorer with 1,847 points. Clearly, he's in the "more isn't necessarily better" camp, particularly if the viewer doesn't benefit from the Division I conferences' financial windfalls.

But if the financial reality schools face in the NIL era demands more from its existing sports revenue streams, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the NCAA try to extract more madness from March.

The NCAA reported a record $1.29 billion in revenue in fiscal 2023, according to its annual audited financial statements reported by Sportico. More than 80 percent of that comes from the men’s Division I basketball tournament, driven primarily by the TV deals with CBS and Warner Bros Discovery.

If the tournament does end up expanding, don't expect it to contract. The expansion to 68 teams in 2011 was met with significant pushback, enough to bring the NCAA back "from the brink" of expansion to a 96-team field. Now, the floodgates could open again.

Home/Sports Media