Check out the NCAA Tourney coverage at the State News. Pretty good, for student pay. Also, Joe Rexrode at LSJ predicts a Big Green national title; as does Steve Weiberg at USA Today.

NCAA TOURNEY EXPANSION

You can COUNT on expansion to 96 teams. It is a done deal (or read here, or here, etc). As the NCAA renegotiates its basketball contract with CBS, the unsustainable financial structure that exists today in college sports is pushing the tournament to expand another 32 teams. It won't fix the problem, but that is beside the point. And, it will happen.

How will this work? The top 32 teams will get a first-round bye -- so, the first round of games will likely be covered by another network (ESPN), while the second round and on, which will be a resulting 64 games (as is the current case), will be covered by CBS.

The ES went ahead and seeded it out as it was today and you can see what a full tourney bracket looks like below... click here to see an enlarged version.



and, yes the NIT would be gone. The NCAA purchased the NIT for $40.5 million back in 2005, and this essentially absorbs and eliminates it.