(03-23-2013 06:14 PM)mattsarz Wrote:  They screwed up two principles with Cal's seeding, which they said was an issue with trying to place Oregon, who was a true 11 seed, but moved down a line:

1) Playing a little too close to home, though a five seed (their 1st opponent) is not a protected seed line
2) UNLV played Cal in the regular season and the committee is supposed to avoid rematches early in the tournament.

The rematch is not a seeding principle: it's just a goal. Much like the idea of conference mates not meeting until the regional final is a "goal," but not a seeding principle.

Also there is no rule about lower seeded teams playing close to home. The opposite is actually true. Whenever they can, they try to play teams as close to home, and will move teams up and down the seed line if they can to accomplish it, even if it gives a lower seeded team a home court advantage. You will often see a five or a six seed have a better geographical situation than the 4 and 3 seed they will meet in the next round, due to the seeding principles: especially in the South and west (if you are a 3 or 4 seed, you are one of the last "protected" seeds to be slotted, so you may get a bad draw. As a 5 or 6 seed, you are the "first" of those to eb slotted, and you can end up much closer to home). 9 and 10 seeds also sometimes get good geographical draws for the same reason. You can actually look aroudn this year, and fidn that several lower seeds were actually in the pod that was the closest or second closest to them. But note this year was wacky due to the lack of first weekend sites in the Southeast (the southeast pods were Lexington and Austin, and the East pods were Philly and Dayton).

(03-24-2013 09:41 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(03-24-2013 09:36 AM)HtownOrange Wrote:  The irony here is that [b]Syracuse is banned from playing in the Dome when the Dome is a first round site.

To be fair, that applies to ALL teams - no one is allowed to play at home in the first round, IIRC. You can play 10 miles from home, just not AT home.

Actually you cannot play in your home arena AT ALL unless it happens to host the Final Four. With the new requirements to host, no team will have an issue with that save for maybe St. Johns or Seton Hall (there was talk of suspending the dome requirement for one year so the tourney could go back east to New York or Boston for a year, putting MSG or the Rock as possible sites, along with Barclays and TD).

(03-24-2013 07:49 PM)HtownOrange Wrote:  Thanks, Matt. I forgot the particulars, but it is non-sense. If a team in a large city can play in one arena and simply cross town to play in another arena, isn't this truly a home game? It should not matter, besides, the NCAA reaps more reward (ticket sales) if they place strong teams in their large arenas.

I don't mind that Cal was playing what was essentially an home game, but the idea that Kentucky, Louisville and Syracuse cannot play in their respective large arenas because it is a home game and Cal can play nearby is a farce.

We can all play close to home. Louisville just played roughly the same distance from home as Cal did this weekend, with Kentucky doing it last year. UNC and Duke play within the state of North Carolina most years. So it happens (Syracuse just isn't near a suitable other host)However you have to define a home court somehow, either by distance, proximity, etc. So the NCAA defined it as a court that hosts four or more of your games in a year. This really only affects a few teams, as only a few teams play their home games in sites that are regularly or semi-regularly NCAA tournament sites. Ones I can think of are:

1) Dayton
2) Kentucky
3) Syracuse
4) Georgetown
5) Villanova
6) Louisville
7) Seton Hall - I think that site will move to Brooklyn now though
8) Memphis
9) NC State
10) Marquette
11) DePaul - coming soon with the move to United Center

I did not include St. John's because NYC has not been a regular tourney host in ages.

I may have missed one or two, but for the most part, the other regular tourney sites use venues that are not the regular home sites for an individual team. The difference of course is that in Syracuse case, there are no other regular venues nearby, unless you include proximity to NYC as nearby, which is sort of the downfall of claiming NYC as part of the fanbase footprint. Most every other team on this list, should the get to a protected seed line, has the opportunity to play close to home most years.

That said, Buffalo hosts next year. You can play in Buffalo if you are able to claim the pod.