The Front Row with MARK NELKE April 4, 2010

I have had the good fortune (as well as understanding bosses, and a group of friends who for some reason continue to put up with me) to attend (or cover) the first and second rounds of the NCAA men's basketball tournament in 25 of the past 27 years.

The reasons for going are simple - four games on the first day, followed by a day off to see what else the host city has to offer, then back to the arena to watch the winners play the next day. Plus, it's a good excuse to escape the brutal (well, except for this year) winters up here for a few days in mid-March.

Throw in trying to follow the other 12 first-round games that first day, maybe watching some NCAA games on TV on the off day, as well as just the natural excitement of a tournament starting, and all 64 teams having hope, wondering which big-name school is going to be upset, is usually enough to sit through a game - even if you couldn't name any starter on either team.

Each year on these NCAA trips, it seems we run into a group from somewhere in the country which does the same thing - picks a site a year in advance and rolls the dice on what teams they'll see.

A couple weeks ago in San Jose, we ran into a group which sported T-shirts listing all the first- and second-round sites they had visited over the years - starting with Milwaukee in 1992.

SO WHEN the NCAA hinted this week that expanding the men's basketball tournament from 65 to 96 teams was imminent - either next year, or in 2014, when the current TV deal runs out - I started to wonder about what it would mean for us fans.

Those of us making the journey for that first weekend would end up seeing eight games - four each day - instead of six, so that's good. But the extra games would involve four teams who wouldn't have made a 65-team tournament - so that's not so good.

Example - the No. 16 and 17 seeds in each of the four regionals would play in the "opening round," with the winner playing the No. 1 in the "first round" two days later.

Seeds No. 9 and 24 would play, with the winner playing No. 8. Seeds 12 and 21 would play, with the winner playing No. 5. Seeds 13 and 20 would play, with the winner facing the No. 4 seed. And so on.

The 5-12 matchup has always been the trendy upset pick in the first round. So which game will get that kind of love now? Will it be the sexy 9-24 matchup?

THE SECOND round will actually move to the following week - either Tuesday or Wednesday. Those winners will feed into the Sweet 16 beginning that Thursday and Friday, at which point we'll be back on the same schedule we've been for decades.

The NCAA honchos have not decided whether to play those second-round games at the same site as the regionals, or somewhere else. I would vote to tack them onto the regionals, giving those fans two games on a Tuesday, two more on Thursday and the regional final on Saturday.

I always liked the first weekend the best, because it consisted of six games, compared to three during the regionals and three for the Final Four. Under the new format, it would be eight games in three days the first weekend, and three games (or five) the second week. Five games would make the second week a little more appealing, though it would be stretched over five days.

One of the funnest trips I ever made was not even to the NCAAs. It was the Western Athletic Conference tournament in 1989 in Salt Lake City. One (8-9) game on Wednesday, four on Thursday, the semifinals on Friday and the finals on Saturday. Eight games in four days.

Plus, since Utah and BYU were both crummy that year, their fans didn't buy many tickets, and we had great seats. There was only about 4,000 fans in the 15,000-seat Huntsman Center, so the games had a cozy friends-and-family feeling as you watched teams advance toward an eventual berth in the NCAAs.

As long as the NCAA doesn't gouge us any more than it already does for tickets (as much as $249 to watch the first- and second-round this year), maybe the extra games will outweigh seeing more mediocre teams. (In fact, considering the thousands of empty chairs that showed up for most first- and second-round games, the NCAA should consider lowering ticket prices.)

In any event, check back in a year - or four.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at mnelke@cdapress.com.