96-Team NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Starts 2011

Big Ten conference commissioner Jim Delany says that an expanded 96-team NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament is "probable" in 2011.  Online betting sites and office pools will certainly have their hands full, as if the current 65-team field is not enough.

Delany made the comments to USA Today during an interview Wednesday but he is not a part of the decision-making process.

Some have said that an extra round of 31 games would make the tournament a more valuable television property, ESPN.com points out.

The next meeting of the NCAA board is April 21 in Indianapolis. Oregon State president Ed Ray, a member of the executive committee, told USA Today: "Conventional wisdom must be that it's not impossible. Otherwise, I don't know why we'd have it scheduled for discussion. But I have absolutely no sense [of] whether it's probable or not."

Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com