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Please explain this .....

Hawk_4shur

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Jan 2, 2009
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NCAA Tournament 1st round sites. It's bugged me for years. There must be a logical explanation that I'm missing.

West regional games - Portland and San Diego (makes sense), Buffalo and Greenville NC - Huh?

East Regional games - Ft Worth, Portland, Milwaukee and Indy - none of them in the East

South Regional games - San Diego, Indy, Pittsburg - none of them in the South

Midwest Regional games - Ft Worth, Buffalo, Milwaukee and Greenville - none of them in the Midwest.

Iowa makes the Midwest Regional (Yea!) and then flies right past (sort of) Milwaukee, Indy and Pittsburg to get to Buffalo

Can anyone make sense of this?
 
Because the 1st and 2nd round games are not regional games. The regional games are the sweet 16 and elite 8.

1st and 2nd round games are hosted in multiple cities, and typically the best seed in that pod is nearby, example being Wisconsin going to Milwaukee... then based on bracket rules and seeds they fill in the rest.
 
They changed this 8-10 years ago when they created the "Pod" system. It was designed so teams, especially top 4 seeds (16 teams) would play close to home despite their "Region". Only the Sweet Sixteen is truly region based. The first weekend sites and who plays in them is based on proximity.
 
NCAA Tournament 1st round sites. It's bugged me for years. There must be a logical explanation that I'm missing.

West regional games - Portland and San Diego (makes sense), Buffalo and Greenville NC - Huh?

East Regional games - Ft Worth, Portland, Milwaukee and Indy - none of them in the East

South Regional games - San Diego, Indy, Pittsburg - none of them in the South

Midwest Regional games - Ft Worth, Buffalo, Milwaukee and Greenville - none of them in the Midwest.

Iowa makes the Midwest Regional (Yea!) and then flies right past (sort of) Milwaukee, Indy and Pittsburg to get to Buffalo

Can anyone make sense of this?
You're trying to make sense of the NCAA


That's your answer ;)
 
They changed this 8-10 years ago when they created the "Pod" system. It was designed so teams, especially top 4 seeds (16 teams) would play close to home despite their "Region". Only the Sweet Sixteen is truly region based. The first weekend sites and who plays in them is based on proximity.
Correct. There was some waning attendance before they switched this, where you would have many teams in a region who were from far away from that region. Combine lack of local teams with the high cost of NCAA tickets, and they switched to the pod where there should be some closer teams regionally playing in the first and second rounds.
Buffalo is a bit odd in that none of the teams are super close. UConn is 6-hour drive, Vermont University, with very little fan base, is 6 hours away. Providence is about 7 hours away. So will be interesting to see what sort of turnout they have there.
 
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Regionals are in San Francisco, San Antonio, Chicago, and Philadelphia this year.

This is done on purpose because generally speaking, the higher seeds (1 thru 4) tend to be represented by power conference teams, and tend to have bigger fan bases, so larger markets/venues tend to host these games. WFA in Des Moines has acquitted itself well in the R64/R32 games, but it's not on anybody's short list to host regional matchups anytime soon.

And another caveat is that each R64/R32 venue is assigned a 'host school', where that school is forbidden from playing at that venue should they qualify for the NCAA tournament. Sometimes there is a 'host conference' and I believe that means that qualifying schools from that conference must play at a different venue.
 
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Iowa is a 5 seed and ISU is an 11. Not every team can play close to home. Top seeded teams get the opportunity to play closer to home, if possible.
My point is that how you finish clearly isn't that big of factor. Hell, forget about location..we should be a 4 and ISU should be playing an nit game tonight lol
 
I like how women's tourney does it. Seeds 1-4 play home court for the first weekend.
But in some regard, it also played a role in the lack of competition that existed for years. It was UConn and Tennessee and everyone else because those schools got all the money and all the media coverage. In turn, they could spend more on recruiting and had a brand to sell so they also got first pick of the top athletes. It's still hard for schools to break through and be competitive beyond just making the tournament in WBB. There have been very few upsets.

I would like to see the women go to neutral sites eventually also. Better chance for an upset to occur IMHO. But because the women's team don't draw the attendance of the men's games (with the exception of a handful of schools, Iowa being among them) it won't change anytime soon. Good for Iowa's future but bad for WBB in general.

The women's game is changing and becoming more dynamic and there's been an uptick in attendance and TV viewership. There are also more solid athletes to go around thanks to the expansions and improvement of girls AAU.

Maybe a decade from now the men's/women's tournament will be equal in all respects. It should be noted that just this year the women's tournament expanded to 68 (adding the play in games) which is a step in the right direction.
 
NCAA Tournament 1st round sites. It's bugged me for years. There must be a logical explanation that I'm missing.

West regional games - Portland and San Diego (makes sense), Buffalo and Greenville NC - Huh?

East Regional games - Ft Worth, Portland, Milwaukee and Indy - none of them in the East

South Regional games - San Diego, Indy, Pittsburg - none of them in the South

Midwest Regional games - Ft Worth, Buffalo, Milwaukee and Greenville - none of them in the Midwest.

Iowa makes the Midwest Regional (Yea!) and then flies right past (sort of) Milwaukee, Indy and Pittsburg to get to Buffalo

Can anyone make sense of this?
Last time I looked, Milwaukee was in the Midwest and Indy is in the east(ish).
 
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NCAA Tournament 1st round sites. It's bugged me for years. There must be a logical explanation that I'm missing.

West regional games - Portland and San Diego (makes sense), Buffalo and Greenville NC - Huh?

East Regional games - Ft Worth, Portland, Milwaukee and Indy - none of them in the East

South Regional games - San Diego, Indy, Pittsburg - none of them in the South

Midwest Regional games - Ft Worth, Buffalo, Milwaukee and Greenville - none of them in the Midwest.

Iowa makes the Midwest Regional (Yea!) and then flies right past (sort of) Milwaukee, Indy and Pittsburg to get to Buffalo

Can anyone make sense of this?

Milwaukee isn't in the Midwest?
 
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My point is that how you finish clearly isn't that big of factor. Hell, forget about location..we should be a 4 and ISU should be playing an nit game tonight lol
Finish as in last 5, 10, 15, etc? Or finish overall? Because it clearly rewards overall success on the season.
 
But it does make sense. Outside of doing what the women do for the first round games, how do you reward teams that finish the season well?
With a proper seeding. Never understood the desire to give certain teams a home court advantage in the NCAAs.
 
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With a proper seeding. Never understood the desire to give certain teams a home court advantage in the NCAAs.
Fair enough. I think it adds to the atmosphere when you’ve got fans of teams instead of season ticket holders for the host team. I guess it doesn’t really bother me as much as some.
 
I can see how people don't like it and think it doesn't make sense in how they do the mens 'pod system', but it places emphasis on NET rating and performing well during the regular season.

Wisconsin, if they get that far, plays 2 games in Miwaukee and then a short distance away in Chicago for the next (2) game(s). Do I like it? No, but they earned it.

If Iowa had been placed in Milwaukee for the first couple of rounds, and in the Midwest Region, we'd all be over the moon about it.

But that said, while being a bit under-seeded, Iowa is in the Midwest so if reach the 2nd weekend, they get to play in Chicago - & if Kansas is still alive, Hawks get one of the 'weaker' 1-seeds with a chance to reach the E8.

That's about as good as could be expected, imo.
 
I can see how people don't like it and think it doesn't make sense in how they do the mens 'pod system', but it places emphasis on NET rating and performing well during the regular season.

Wisconsin, if they get that far, plays 2 games in Miwaukee and then a short distance away in Chicago for the next (2) game(s). Do I like it? No, but they earned it.

If Iowa had been placed in Milwaukee for the first couple of rounds, and in the Midwest Region, we'd all be over the moon about it.

But that said, while being a bit under-seeded, Iowa is in the Midwest so if reach the 2nd weekend, they get to play in Chicago - & if Kansas is still alive, Hawks get one of the 'weaker' 1-seeds with a chance to reach the E8.

That's about as good as could be expected, imo.
I agree, the draw is fine - pretty good actually.

My OP was simply about geography, not fairness. I couldn't understand why the teams assigned to the MW Region didn't play in the MW.

That has been explained nicely. The teams are playing to "get" to the Regional - the first two rounds could be anywhere.

In terms of travel - Milwaukee, Indy or Pittsburg sure would have been better.
 
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