NCAA keeps tournament home in Carolina over next three years
Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the first round.
How long has this been true?
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Longer than you might imagine.
With Monday’s announcement there will be first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games in Raleigh, Greensboro and Charlotte from 2016-18, and with a site this year at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, it brings the total to 17 of 22 tournaments in which there has been (or will be) an early round site in the state of North Carolina.
In 2008, when there was a first-round site in Raleigh, the East Region games also were played in Charlotte. In 1998, one of the few years there were no early tournament games in the state, the absence was mitigated by a regional played in Greensboro.
So presuming Duke and North Carolina stay good over the next few years, they’ll likely stay local.
Since 1997, the Tar Heels have opened the NCAA Tournament in their home state eight times – seven of those as a No. 1 seed, once as a No. 2.
In that same period, Duke has opened in state 10 times – seven times as a No. 1, twice as a No. 2 and once as a No. 3.
Since 2002, when the NCAA introduced the “pod system” that meant early round sites no longer were tied to a specific geographic region, North Carolina and Duke have opened at the same home-state site three times: twice Greensboro, once Charlotte.
Obviously, the Heels and Devils have had to maintain titanic programs in order to earn the advantage of playing close to home. (And, it hasn’t always been that great an advantage for Duke, which lost to No. 14 seed Mercer last March in Raleigh and to No. 15 seed Lehigh at Greensboro in 2012).
Still, the frequent placement of early sites in the state of North Carolina does raise the issue of fairness.
Dan Gavitt, the NCAA vice president in charge of the men’s basketball champion, told Sporting News the staff and men’s basketball committee “try to consider everything in the process, history included.” The selection of sites is naturally based on “what cities bid, and how frequently.”
North Carolina’s advantage in the process has always been its orientation toward basketball, a geographic location that is at the intersection of East and South and the willingness of the ACC and its member schools (as well as Charlotte, now of Conference USA) to serve as tournament hosts.
“North Carolina has been a great state supporting the tournament,” Gavitt said. “As have California, Florida, Texas and others.”
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