NCAA Tournament Expansion: 68 is a magic number (For Now)

And up with the puff of white smoke, there is expansion news in college sports.

But it's the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament expansion that is the news of the day before the NFL Draft consumes all sports news like Galactus.

The men's tournament will expand to 68 teams next year, getting to a number that is at least divisible by four unlike the awkward 65 that has been in place since 2001.

That gigantic whooshing noise you heard was from many college basketball fans who were petrified that the tournament was going to swell to 96 teams for 2011 and ruin the perfect balance of an 8 1/2" by 11" sheet of paper that has lines for 64 teams.

If you are one of those people, I've got news for you:

68 is just the starting point.

Look back in history to when the tournament first started to evolve to the allegedly perfect 64/65 and you will see an interesting metamorphosis:

1978 - 32 teams
1979 - 40 teams
1980 - 48 teams
1983 - 52 teams
1984 - 53 teams
1985 - 64 teams
2001 - 65 teams

Let's disregard 1984 and 2001, since those expansions led to only one extra bid.

Between 1978 and 1985, in a span of 7 years, the tournament doubled in size.

Now, going from 65 to 96 would not be a doubling in size, but adding 33 percent more teams.

Can't you see that happening by 2017? I know I can. And, quite frankly, it probably will — especially because we could see some radical realigning of conferences on the horizon that will reshape the college athletics landscape.

If the shuffling of deck chairs happens on the football side, it will definitely affect the NCAA tournament. If the Big Six BCS leagues consolidate as some of us think they will, the men's tournament will have no choice but to expand because of the imbalance of power and the almighty dollar.

So sleep well tonight, those of you who are against tourney expansion.

Your nightmare may not begin for another 12-18 months.