NCAA Tournament Change

[Griffin 1]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colle...ten/column.htm

How is this supposed to work? What's more important, though, is how will this affect office pools?

[Mick Fan]

It won't affect office pools at all. Here's the change:

Before this year: Each of the eight first and second round sites hosted a predetermined regional. For example, say that Pittsburgh and Washington DC hosted East region first & second round games. Eight of the East teams go to Pittsburgh; the other eight go to DC. In the regional, the two Pittsburgh winners play and the two DC winners play.

This year: Now the bracket is divided into 16 groups of four (for example a 1-16 and a 8-9). Each first/second round site will get two foursomes. Where the teams get sent will depend on the location of the highest seeded team. You could have two #1 seeds playing at the same regional site. It would have happened earlier when Greensboro hosted first/second round games and both Duke and North Carolina were #1 seeds, even if UNC is the top seed in the west.

The upshot is to think of the bracket as 16 groups of four instead of eight groups of eight. They get sent to the sites regardless of what regional it is.

They are doing this to avoid those situations where the top seed in the west has to go out west on consecutive weekends (and vice versa). It could still happen, but it will be less frequent.

I guess I wrote a book. It's kind of complicated if you don't understand at first. I'll be at Pittsburgh for the first round this year!

Hope this helps.

[Kid Rock]

I don't think 2 #1's will end up at the same site. There are 16 regional sites and a top 4 seed will be at each location. The top 4 seeds will be kept closer to home, not necessarily the closest place. Maryland, for instance, might end up it Pittsburgh, not DC.

[Ducky]

Sounds like they're tinkering again. First they add a 65th team, now this. Smells like a BCS-type piece of crap coming up from the good ol' NCAA.

[the mole]

Don't worry. It's all a part of my plan.

[Mick Fan]

On 2002-02-14 09:26, Kid Rock wrote:
I don't think 2 #1's will end up at the same site. There are 16 regional sites and a top 4 seed will be at each location. The top 4 seeds will be kept closer to home, not necessarily the closest place. Maryland, for instance, might end up it Pittsburgh, not DC.

There are only eight first and second round sites. This year, it is possible for one regional site to have two #1 seeds. It is also possible for a site to have two #4 seeds. Before, each of the eight sites had a 1/4 or a 2/3 foursomes.

They are going to try to keep the higher seeds as close to home as possible. It won't be possible for everyone, though.