NCAA tourney expanding to 68 is ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The NCAA is set to expand the men's basketball tournament from 65 to 68 teams starting next year.

So it's not 96 teams after all, at least not now. That's a good thing.

From this Washington Post story on the matter:

Sean McManus, the president of CBS News and CBS Sports, said: "We are very comfortable with 68 teams. That's what the deal is based on and it meets all our programming and financial needs."

CBS and Turner Broadcasting -- not ESPN -- have secured broadcast, Internet and wireless rights to air the tourney. They'll be on a lot of networks, networks in all sorts of mediums, no doubt.

What this means is there will be four play-in games instead of one. So that's four times the "Who cares?" It's six more teams that will have that much more of a roadblock to a first-round victory. The winners of the play-in games will get No. 1 or No. 2 seeds in the first-round.

It's also a vehicle for three more mediocre teams from major conferences to slide into the tournament. Which means one or two or maybe three coaching jobs will be saved each year. So that's nice, I guess.

What it means is the little teams and conferences get it stuck to them yet again, and the rich get richer.

But it beats a 96-team every which way. The NCAA heard all the complaining about that and actually listened. This time.