Re: why does North Carolina ...

On Mar 28, 1:14 pm, "Edward M. Kennedy" <e...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
"Randolph M. Jones" <rjo...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote



.. always get to play tourney games at home? it's incredibly bogus.
not that they wouldn't have whipped washington state anywhere, but
still, it's the principle of the damn thing ..
No different than UCLA; they are the top seed in their home region.
meanwhile, the big ten has to play in every region....
really, no Home games should be a rule...
IAWTP. Top seeds have a huge advantage as it is.

--Tedward
<
<has it been this way for decades? I don't ever remember such blatant
<home cooking as this year, especially with UNC.

A while, but not decades.

It used to be more random. In 1987, when Indiana won it all, they
squeaked by a surprising Duke team. In INDIANAPOLIS. The home crowd
made all the difference.

Good thing I'm Not Bitter[TM].

Didn't they just change things in the last couple of years to allow the first two rounds to be played in places that aren't
geographically in the same "region" as the teams have been placed in for the third and fourth rounds?

Yeah, the pod system. It is alien!


http://www.newsobserver.com/734/story/1002222.html

Interesting exploration of the whole thing, complete with history and
context.

some quotes (note this was written BEFORE this year's bracket was
unveiled):

The distance teams travel grew in importance six years ago when the
tournament selection committee began organizing its 65-team field into
geographical groupings known as "pods." The intent was to make it
easier for fans to attend early round games. But the change had
another effect. It has created "super seeds," top teams that get the
weakest early opponents, avoid grinding travel and play closer to
their fans.

A News & Observer analysis of the past 12 years of tournament data
found that the distance a team travels for a game is a telling factor
in the outcome. Teams that played within 250 miles of their campus won
69 percent of their games. Teams that traveled 500 miles or more won
just 46.5 percent.

For top teams, the switch to pods shortened the road to the Final
Four. No.1 and No. 2 seeds now travel less than half the distance they
did before in the early rounds, often within a few hours' drive of
their campus. Lower seeds also travel less, but still play, on
average, more than 1,000 miles from home.

[snip]

Duke and North Carolina have been the biggest beneficiaries of playing
close to home. Since 2000, Duke has played eight NCAA Tournament games
within 100 miles of Durham. UNC has played six within 100 miles of
Chapel Hill in the past decade. None of the NCAA's other 300-plus
teams has played more than two so close to their campus.

[snip]

Virginia coach Dave Leitao said the state of North Carolina has so
many qualified NCAA sites -- Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and
Charlotte have all hosted NCAA games since 2002 -- that it's almost
impossible to negate an advantage for UNC or Duke.
.

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