By JUSTIN KANE
For the first time ever fans will be able to watch every game of the NCAA Men’s division one basketball tournament. Well at least try to watch every game. Before this year, CBS had exclusive rights to the tournament, but in April the NCAA reached a $10.8 billion deal with CBS Sports and Turner Sports (TBS, TNT and truTV) from 2011-2024, making it the first time that every game of the tournament will be shown on national TV.
This is also the first year the tournament expanded to 68 teams from 64. This now means the four lowest ranked teams of the 68 will play against each other in a pair of “first four” games, with winners advancing to play number 1 seeds. The last four at-large teams will play in the other two First Four games, with the winners moving on to likely face either number 5 or 6 seeds.
The number one overall seed selected by the committee was the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Buckeyes went 32-2 (16-2 in Big 10 play) and will play the winner of the University of Texas-San Antonio/Alabama State game. The other three number one seeds are Kansas, Duke and Pittsburgh.
Two Florida teams made the field of 68, Florida State who went 21-10 (11-5 in ACC play) received a 10 seed and will play seven seed Texas A&M. The highest seeded Florida team is the University of Florida (26-7 , 13-3 in the SEC) who received a two seed and will play the University of California Santa Barbara.
The 68 teams are selected by a selection committee each year. Thirty of the 31 automatic bids will be given to the programs that win their conference tournaments. The remaining 37 teams were selected as “at-large” teams.
The Big East conference received 11 bids in this years tournament the most by any conference in history, headlined by dominant teams such as Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Connecticut and Syracuse.
The opening round will be held in Dayton, Ohio, where the “first four” games will be played. The newly named second round (March 17-20) will be held in Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Tampa, Tucson, Tulsa, and Washington, DC. The regional rounds (March 24-27) will be played in Anaheim, Newark, New Orleans and San Antonio.
The final four and national championship will be played at the Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. on April 2 and 4 respectively. Here are my predictions for the 2011 men’s NCAA basketball national championship.
