NCAA tourney has a geography problem

[heitclone]

https://thebiglead.com/2019/02/10/t...aphy-problem-and-should-move-a-western-venue/

Interesting read, came out after the initial top 16 was released. Should they continue to put two first sites in the west?

Thought this was especially interesting about last year.

The average distance of the eight teams from San Diego last year was 1,928 miles.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Putting one of the west regional games in Denver, one of the plains cities (e.g., Kansas City or Minneapolis), or in Texas or Oklahoma would help a lot.

 

[wxman1]

It is made for TV. Do they really care?

 

[ScottyP]

One positive about have Salt Lake City as a site is there are direct flights from Des Moines.

 

[ArgentCy]

I guess the Pac XII shouldn't be so bad at football and basketball.

 

[NoCreativity]

The PAC-12, Mountain West, and WCC could try not sucking at basketball so more than 1 team would get in from each conference.

When you only have 1 team from the entire western half of the entire country as a 1-3 seed you are going to run into issues with geography.

 

[heitclone]

It is made for TV. Do they really care?

They changed to the pod system 15-20 years ago to help attendance and travel, its at least on their minds.

 

[heitclone]

The PAC-12, Mountain West, and WCC could try not sucking at basketball so more than 1 team would get in from each conference.

When you only have 1 team from the entire western half of the entire country as a 1-3 seed you are going to run into issues with geography.

Luckily they have the Zags and Nevada this year, otherwise there would be 2 top seeds from the east/midwest that get screwed and have to travel.

 

[Cycsk]

A few years ago, we went the the 1st and 2nd rounds in Austin, Texas. The closest team was Illinois!

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Luckily they have the Zags and Nevada this year, otherwise there would be 2 top seeds from the east/midwest that get screwed and have to travel.

That happened to KU a few years back. Just brutal to earn a high seed but get pushed out West because the Pac 12 is garbage.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

It's fine if the NCAA wants to give the west coast a regional but moving forward, don't put 2 first round sites out there. Just from a probability standpoint, there will almost always be teams pushed west.

 

[NoCreativity]

Luckily they have the Zags and Nevada this year, otherwise there would be 2 top seeds from the east/midwest that get screwed and have to travel.

Nevada doesn't seem to me like a team who is going to be a 2 or 3 seed and get geographic preference.

I kind of like this idea of moving one the western sites further east. They could probably do Texas or Oklahoma and still consider that as a western pod. That would make travel about even from either the west or east coast, but then if the PAC-12 is ever good again its not really fair to them to have to travel that far as a top seed.

 

[JD720]

Nevada doesn't seem to me like a team who is going to be a 2 or 3 seed and get geographic preference.

They probably will by default. All of the other top 4 seeds will be fighting over the sites east of the Rockies. Even if Nevada seeded 16th overall, there is a good chance that last spot will be in either San Jose or Salt Lake City.