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| Monday, February 17 Updated: February 18, 11:12 AM ET Pre-determined ponderings By Charlie Creme Special to ESPN.com |
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Pre-determined sites. Preferred, but not perfect.
And nothing stirred up the mailbag last month more than the issue of home-court sites. For the first time, the women's NCAA Tournament includes 16 pre-determined first- and second-round sites. By rule -- one that was overlooked in last month's projections -- any team chosen as a host that also qualifies for the field will automatically be placed on its home court, regardless of seed. In previous years, the host was always determined by the highest seed in a particular group of four, meaning the top four seeds in each region always, assuming their facility was available, played at least one home game (and maybe two) to open the tournament. The change keeps some of that intact, but also provides for more planning, earlier ticket sale potential, and begins the evolution of one day playing all the games in the women's tournament on neutral, pre-arranged sites. For now, logistics also dictate that if a school is to play host, its staff also needs to be present. It takes tremendous manpower to run a two- or three-day NCAA event. If, for instance, Georgia's women's team was sent to another city to play, too much personnel would have to travel, leaving a shortage of bodies in Athens to run the three games that will be played there. So, it all makes sense, right? Right. But that doesn't mean problems aren't possible.
Also, Cincinnati is hosting a sub-regional despite being a No. 11 seed. The committee will move teams a seed line (ie. an 11 to a 10, an 8 to a 9) to help avoid conflicts like these. But under the current rules, unless all the hosts also happen to be top-four seeds, some favorite will be playing in hostile territory. Now, this isn't a personal complaint. I merely provide possibilities. In fact, the advantages of pre-determined sites far outweigh the perceived unfairness by one or two schools. Not to mention that the plan for pre-determined site was no knee-jerk decision and all the schools are fully aware of the possibilities beforehand. Yet, it will spark some debate and probably cause some unhappiness among some players and coaches.
What if all the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds -- or even seven of eight of them -- also happened to be host schools? Seems okay, right? These are the teams that have earned home games. Nothing unfair about that. However, what if other pre-determined host schools earn 7, 8, 9 or 10 seeds -- or for simplicity sake, what we'll call "middle seeds"? Based on the host-school-must-stay-at-home rule, this can't happen because a middle seed could potentially play a No. 1 or No. 2 in the second round and they both can't be at home. It could paint the committee into a corner. It's not a hardened rule, but the committee says it will move teams "one" seed line. It might no longer be possible to cap the move at one under these circumstances. Using this week's bracket to illustrate: Five of the eight top seeds (all the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds) also are pre-determined hosts. That means that in five cases, no other host can be a 7, 8, 9 or 10 seed in order to avoid a potential second-round conflict. This month Oklahoma and Cincinnati each had to be moved (Oklahoma was moved more than the desired one spot). It gets more complicated when trying to keep a No. 1 seed off an opponents' home floor in the second round. LSU and Duke are the No. 1s in this bracket projection which aren't hosting. A number of teams had to be moved from their "natural" seed (ie. the seed that they appeared to have earned) to prevent LSU from playing a road game against a foe with substantially less credentials. As it is, No. 2 North Carolina is primed to meet Colorado in Boulder if both win first-round games. The more teams at the top also serving as hosts, the more challenging it becomes. It's especially complicated when the idea of keeping teams from the same conferences out of each others' way until as late in the tournament as possible (it doesn't help when eight SEC teams qualify) is added to the mix. For instance, say somehow Duke faltered down the stretch and fell to a No. 3 seed and Penn State, Stanford, and Louisiana Tech all moved up one spot to No. 2. Perhaps it's not likely, but certainly not impossible. They would join Tennessee, Connecticut, Texas Tech, Kansas State, and Purdue. All are hosts. That would mean all eight top seeds would be host schools, offering absolutely no wiggle room. Not a single "middle seed" caliber host school would be allowed to play as its "earned" seed. So teams like New Mexico, Cincinnati, Oklahoma, Colorado or Old Dominion (should the Lady Monarchs qualify) would have to have their seed either inflated or deflated, quite possible significantly, in order to fit into the bracket. Or course, this is all complete and utter conjecture. There is no way of knowing how the committee will handle it until such a scenario plays out -- and until the bracket is unveiled on March 16. We're only raising a few questions along the way. Charlie Creme was a writer and editor at Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook for 11 years. He can be reached at cwcreme@hotmail.com. |
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