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Should the NCAA Tournament Field be announced in Prime Time?

B

BDBopper

CBS per their deal with the NCAA, get to announce the field of 65 for the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament. Should CBS show this in Prime Time (like at 8 PM after 60 Minutes)? The Tourney is such a big event I think the unveiling of the bracket deserves Prime Time attention. Not only that, but it would give the selection committee a few more hours to make sure they have everything right. At present the bracket has to be submitted at a time right after two conference championships are decided. If those games go down to the wire the result currently cannot really count and this affects at least seeding (since today all four teams in the two games are locks) but possibly costs a team a bid that might have had a great run in the Big XII or Big Ten (however if that team loses to a lock really close that late in the game the Committee has no time to give that team a second look).

In Contrast, ESPN, who has the rights to the Women's tourney has the bracket announcement at 8 PM on a Monday night, a day after all the conference tourney's are done. that's not possible on the Men's side because of Television. But the Committee for the Men's tourney should at least have a few hours after the final automatic bids have been determined.

What say you?
 
I think ESPN announced the men's bracket at the same time as CBS. My take on this is that CBS should get the NCAA to only reveal the list live on CBS and probably in prime time. The announcement show itself could be a big event.
 
Well, the NCAA doesn't provide the bracket to ESPN, ESPN actually has to, by contract, get their info from CBS. It was in the last contract ESPN signed with the NCAA for the championships in every other sport.
 
Given the fact that it was oh so important compared to the CBS Evening News and local news (which it scuttled in the eastern time zones) perhaps the fodder for millions of dollars of illegal betting deserves its own prime time slot.
 
Currently the selection show gets 5's, which is not enough to win most nights of prime time, but is enough to be competitive. However, it would be a downgrade for CBS unless the move to prime time picks up ratings by itself. Its lowest-rated show of the night, "The Amazing Race", gets 6's. I do agree with the other points made tho.
 
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