NCAA men’s basketball tournament officially expands to 68 teams

After flirting with the idea of expanding the field to as many as 96 teams, the NCAA this week officially approved a 68-team men’s college basketball tournament, beginning in 2011. The tournament had been 65 teams, but now it will add three more games, according to ESPN. Earlier in the month, CBS and Turner Broadcasting agreed to pay the NCAA $10.8 billion over 14 years for the television rights to the tournament, which is one of the more popular overall sporting events in the nation each year. In 2001, the field went from 64 to 65 teams, the first change in almost two decades.