NCAA Basketball Tournament Takes On New Look

NCAA tournament experiences three time zones away might be a thing of the past for schools such as UCLA and USC after the NCAA on Thursday changed its bracketing procedures for the men’s basketball tournament.

The changes are designed to give the top four seeded teams in each region--16 teams overall--a better chance to play closer to home during the first two rounds.

Beginning in March, the NCAA selection committee will assign the top four teams in each region to subregional sites with an emphasis on reducing travel, regardless of where the teams would play in regionals the next week if they were to advance.

The change is designed to eliminate--or reduce the likelihood of--situations such as the ones in last season’s tournament that had Maryland, Georgetown, George Mason and Hampton assigned to first-round games in Boise, Idaho, and USC and UCLA playing in Uniondale, N.Y., and Greensboro, N.C., respectively. In 2000, Pepperdine played its first- and second-round games at Buffalo, N.Y.

The committee will put teams in two groups at each sub-regional site, but the team that advances out of these groups may play in a different regional in the round of 16.

As an example from last season’s tournament, the Midwest’s No. 2-seeded team, Arizona, would have been grouped with No. 15 Eastern Illinois, No. 7 Wake Forest and No. 10 Butler. Instead of playing at Kansas City, Mo., this group could have played at a site closer to Arizona, most likely San Diego, before the group winner moved to the Midwest semifinals at San Antonio.

“For student-athletes, it means less travel, fewer missed classes and a more exciting atmosphere in the arenas,” said Mike Tranghese, chairman of the basketball committee and commissioner of the Big East Conference.

In the 64-team format--and after the “play-in” game that was used for the first time in last season’s tournament--first- and second-round games were played at one of two sites in that region, then the next two at one site in that same region.

In last season’s tournament, 10 of the top 16 seeded teams played first-round games in their time zone or in a region the team is most identified with.

Tranghese said the new method of bracketing also should cut teams’ expenses and boost attendance in the opening rounds.

The committee also willhave the flexibility to put the fourth team selected from a conference in the same region as the highest-seeded team from that conference. Previously, once the highest-seeded team from a conference was assigned a region, no other team from that conference could be assigned there until a sixth team was selected from that conference.

As a No. 4-seeded team in last season’s tournament, UCLA played its first two games in Greensboro, N.C., before moving to Philadelphia for an East Regional semifinal game.

Had the new system been in place, the Bruins might have played in the West sub-regional in San Diego or Boise, Idaho--the closest opening-round sites.