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Posted By	Discussion Topic: NCAA changing the way it fills out the brackets for tourney
TeenWeek what's a status?	posted on 07-12-2001 @ 8:43 AM
O&A Board Regular Registered: Oct. 00	Wednesday, July 11 NCAA will radically redo bracketing scheme ESPN.com Sacramento is by no means in the East, but it could end up in the East bracket for the men's 2002 NCAA Tournament. In an effort to cut down on travel time in the subregional rounds for high-seeded teams, the NCAA will significantly alter the way it fills its bracket next season. The locations of subregional games will remain as they already are, but the teams -- and brackets -- that play there are subject to change, an NCAA Tournament selection committee member told ESPN.com's Andy Katz on Wednesday. In the case of Sacramento, for instance (or Greensville, S.C., Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh -- wherever), rather than automatically hosting the 1-16, 8-9, 5-12 and 4-13 games or the 6-11, 3-14, 7-10 and 2-15 games from the South Region, the site might host two sets of 1-16, 8-9 games, or two sets of 5-12, 4-13 games, or any combination of the four paired subregional games from any of the other three regions. These groups of four will be called pods. The NCAA could announce the changes as early as Thursday. The committee member stressed that the top four teams will still be the No. 1 seeds, and the next four teams the No. 2 seeds, and so on, and that the brackets will still be built the same way as they currently are according to teams' relative strengths, but that the locations of the first- and second-round games for any given region are no longer locked into a specific site. For instance, if Stanford and Arizona are both No. 1 seeds -- Stanford in the West and Arizona in the East -- and San Diego is scheduled to host a subregional tournament, the city could host two sets of 1-16 of 8-9 games, with the winners moving on in their respective brackets to the next location, Stanford someplace else in the West and Arizona in the East. The changes are being implemented so that top-seeded teams from the same geographical region are no longer "punished" by being forced to travel cross-country in order to play their first two rounds, and so that fans of the top teams will have a better chance of having their favorite teams play in a nearby location. The rule that no team may play a subregional on its own homecourt remains in effect. The NCAA committee received a number of complaints from fans when George Mason, Georgetown, Maryland and Hampton were all sent to Boise, Idaho, for the first round of games. Maryland and Georgetown stayed on the road for two weeks out West, which added up to lost class time.
Francine Banger	posted on 07-12-2001 @ 12:29 PM
O&A Board Regular Registered: Dec. 00	This sounds so f'n stupid and unneeded. You have Regions for a reason. Splitting everything up just creates total chaos and stupidity.

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