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NCAA in early stages of talks to expand March Madness field LOGINREGISTERHELPYOU ARE NOT LOGGED IN NHLNBAMLBCFLNFLCurlingTennisGolfSoccerNASCARFormula OneIndyCar NASCAR Canadian Tire SeriesNationwideCamping WorldAuto RacingWorld JuniorsSpengler CupMenS WHCWomenS WHCHockey CanadaAHLBoxingCanada GamesCHLCISECHLFigure SkatingLacrosseMMANCAASkiingSummer SportsWinter SportsMoreOlympicsFantasyDaily LineShowsTSN TalentCommunityMaineotText SizeKANSAS CITY Mo Talk of expanding the NCAA tournament is almost always done in public most notably by Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim in 2006Now the NCAA is looking into it behind closed doors at least preliminarilyRekindling discussion of a popular topic outside the organization the NCAA has held early stage talks about expanding its mens basketball tournament and possibly moving it from broadcast to cableBut dont worry purists No changes are imminentWere just in a due diligence phase of examining all of our assets and among those things is mens basketball NCAA senior vicepresident Greg Shaheen said Thursday Certainly with all of the other championships were studying structure schedule and format on all of them There are no talks as it relates to a particular topic Its just part of our due diligence processThe impetus for the conversations revolves around the NCAAs 11year US$6 billion contract with CBSThe NCAA can opt out of the final three years of the contract after this season The organizations brass has eyed the optout for several years following the orders of late NCAA president Myles Brand to look at every possibility for all 88 of its championships the mens basketball tournament includedWere having very general study and conversation as we go said Shaheen the senior vicepresident of basketball and business strategies Weve been working on this phase of the process for years When I took over the contracts in early 04 Dr Brands very first directive to me was to make sure were readily on position for the due diligence phase several years from now and now is the timeThe NCAA tournament expanded from 48 teams to 64 in 1985 and expanded to the current 65team bracket in 2001 when the number of automatic bids was increased from 30 to 31The idea of expanding the tournament has been raised numerous times over the yearsBoeheim said three years ago at a meeting of the National Association of Basketball Coaches that the tournament should add four maybe six more teams Others have called to raise it to 80 teams or make it 96 and fold in the National Invitation Tournament Former UCLA coach John Wooden has said the tournament should include all the teams in Division I which exceeds 300 this seasonPurists want to leave it as isMost of the discussions have been done in a public forum and there are varied perspectives and models out there Shaheen saidThe NCAA also has contacted various networks ab...