"Amature" Sports.

[Headache in a Suitcase]

March Madness is always my favorite time of year... basketball is everywhere... wether it's the NCAA men's tourney, women's tourney, or the NIT... there's always something worthwhile to watch.

But as I just watched a highlight of #1 Penn State play #2 UConn in the women's tournament, something struck me as odd... UConn was the 2 seed, wearing their road uniforms... but the baseline of the basketball court they played on read Connecticut and was navy blue. The regional final, winner to go to the women's final four, supposed to be held on a "neutral court," took place at the Hartford Civic Center, about a half hour drive from the University of Connecticut campus. Now why would a supposed neutral site be scheduled so close to the campus of the most dominant team in women's college basketball's campus? The answer is quite simple... the almighty dollar. It would've been a huge upset if UConn, even as the 2 seed instead of the expected 1 seed, didn't get to the regionals. So the NCAA's thinking was that UConn would be in the Eastern regionals, and they would sell the most tickets if they put those regionals as close to Storrs, CT as possiable. But something happened along the way... UConn stumbled in the Big East Tournament and ended up slipping from a 1 seed to a 2 seed. The NCAA put them in the East anyway. So Penn State's reward for having a better regular season than UConn was to have to baisicly, as a 1 seed, play a road game in the regional finals... just so the NCAA could sell more tickets. We saw this in the men's bracket as well, where the NCAA put Wisconson in Milwaukee, despite being a 6 seed, forcing the 3 seed Pitt to baisicly play a road game against a lower seeded team. Why, just to sell some extra tickets. So my question is, if the NCAA is all about making money, why should we be outraged when a 17 year old high school senior skips college to go to the NBA where he can make millions right off the bat? And why is the NCAA so conscerned about this trend? Is it because they care about the "student athletes?" Or is it that they just care about the diluted talent pool leading to lower ratings?

Hypocrisy abounds... but I guess most of us already knew that.

 

[popacrobat]

actually they play some games at the Civic Center too, so they use it as their homecourt sometimes as well. men and women for UConn play both at the Civic Center and Gampell

 

[Clark W. Griswold Jr]

The PSU/UConn game site is a mighty sore subject in my neck o' the woods. As if having to play a defacto "road" game in the regional final wasn't bad enough, PSU also played their first two games of the tourney in Blacksburg, Va, and had to face the 8 seed Hokies on their home floor. Some bonus for being a 1 seed

Top it all off, they got homered badly tonight.

As far as the hypocracy surrounding the NCAA is concerned, it's always been that way. They claim they stand for the ideal of the "student athlete", but know deep down that they can't make any money without the help of some marginal at best "scholars".

Not to pick on one program, but some of the LSU kids really embarassed their school when interviewed after the Sugar Bowl. It's not just them, it's almost everywhere. Even Michigan and Ohio St., two schools who you would think preach academics, have less than 50% grad rates for their football programs. Miami-Fla. stands at 60%. Go figure.

The NCAA's hypocracy is what stands in the way of a D1 playoff for football. They claim to be protecting the student athlete when they are really just protecting the pay-out of 28 bowls. 27 of which are meaningless games played in front of half empty stadiums.

 

[Hewson]

Same type stuff happens in men's tourney too.
The UConn logo was there because they were the "Host" college of the site. You'll notice the men's tourney had these as well, for example the Georgia Tech logo in Atlanta even though Tech was sent to another regional or the Rutgers logo in E. Rutherford.
And how is it that Gonzaga got to play in Seattle this year and Wisconsin got to play in Milwaukee.
The sites are predetermined, but often to boost attendance a local or at least regional school is sent to a close destination.

 

[Hewson]

BTW..."Amateur"

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

BTW..."Amateur"

i know what i said... i was being ironical.


i understand sites are pre-determined, and every now and then a situation is going to pop up where a team is playing closer to home than the opponent, such as what happened this year in football with the national championship being in the new orleans with LSU playing in the game... but the BCS is done on a rotating basis, so it was just irony that they happened to have LSU play for that national championship when it happened to be the sugar bowl's turn to host the bcs title game. this is a different situation though... they specificly picked this location in order to sell more tickets... and then when UConn slipped to a 2, they purposely left them in the East, when they easily, as a 2 seed, could have justified putting them elsewhere... but then the Civic Center would've been half empty, and who wants that?

i'm not gonna get into the "intellegence" factor regarding student athletes. sure there are many athletes who are quite stupid and never go to class... but then there are those who are model students with 4.0 GPAs... i.e the grant hill's, patrick ewing's and dikembe mutumbo's of the world. (ewing and mutumbo are often said to be "dumb" because of "the way they talk." ewing served as an intern in congress durring his time at georgetown, mutumbo was never recruited to play basketball. he was a pre-med student attending georgetown on an accademic scholarship before coach john thompson convinced him to play basketball... he was 7'2" afterall. both were true "student/athletes"). as for graduation rates, they often appear worse than they actually really are. the graduation rates of the basketball programs at duke and north carolina have dropped significantly in the past 5-10 years. is it because these storied programs are getting more lax as far as grades go? no chance... more and more athletes are leaving these colleges early in order to declare themselves for the NBA draft. in football players transfer, leave early, red shirt, and some just drop out and don't graduate. but regular students smoke themselves silly and drop out of college too. they become unhappy, homesick, transfer, or just don't care anymore. compare the graduation rates of the athletic programs to the overall graduation rates of each specific institution, and there isn't much difference. the more prestigous the school accademicly, the higher the overall graduation rates of all students, the higher the graduation rates of student athletes. the lower the reputation, the lower the overall rates, the lower the student athlete rates.

 

[zonelistener]

i know what i said... i was being ironical.

sure!



This year, the NCAA tried matching up teams to close cities (Wisconsin in Milwaukee and Gonzaga in Seattle). They said it was the first year they were doing it purposely.

 

[Justified]

So why was Tech in St. Louis and not Atlanta?

 

[Clark W. Griswold Jr]

So why was Tech in St. Louis and not Atlanta?

Because then they would have been closer to home than Duke would be for their games and we really couldn't have that could we?

 

[zonelistener]

Anyone watch the women's regional finals last night?


I think I may have just killed the thread

 

[Mr. BAW]

I always thought the regional sites were pre-determined; similar to the Super Bowl...several years in advance... Has the Super Bowl was ever played on the home field of one of the finalists...anyone???

 

[Hewson]

Superbowl has never had an actual home team play in it, closest was when the Niners played in the game at Stanford.
(This is largely due to nearly 40 years of sucking by the Saints since N'awlins hosts 7 of every 8 Superbowls)

As for regional sites in NCAA, they are predetermined. I believe (not 100% sure) that there is a rule that teams can't be sent to play in a region where the final would be a home game (doesn't apply to first rounds), so Tech wouldn't be allowed to play in the Atlanta regional. And Rutgers wouldn't be sent to the E.Rutherford regional if they had made the tourney etc.

 

[zonelistener]

The MEN'S sites are pre-determined....not the women's sites.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Superbowl has never had an actual home team play in it, closest was when the Niners played in the game at Stanford.
(This is largely due to nearly 40 years of sucking by the Saints since N'awlins hosts 7 of every 8 Superbowls)

As for regional sites in NCAA, they are predetermined. I believe (not 100% sure) that there is a rule that teams can't be sent to play in a region where the final would be a home game (doesn't apply to first rounds), so Tech wouldn't be allowed to play in the Atlanta regional. And Rutgers wouldn't be sent to the E.Rutherford regional if they had made the tourney etc.

yes on georgia tech, not neccesarily on rutgers... i'm not exactly sure why they had rutgers as the host team for the east rutheford bracket... the only game rutgers plays at the meadowlands is when they play seton hall... who use the continental airlines arena as their home court. common sense would then say that seton hall should've been the host team. but then again, when ever an opening round is held at nassau coliseum, the host team is always st. john's, despite the fact that hofstra university is literally across the street from the coliseum. who knows

 

[zonelistener]

I don't know this for sure, but it might be "who applies to host" the game.

A lot of times, the Regional site is selected because it is a future Final Four site. They use it as a "test run."