Although it seems too soon to project, I've broken this down, and I think Cornell is destined to be placed in the East (Washington or Tampa) for the first round of the NCAA's. Here's my theory-->
The potential cities Cornell may play there first round games are Anaheim (CA), Birmingham (AL), Denver (CO), Little Rock (AK), Omaha (NE), Raleigh (NC), Tampa (FL), and Washington DC
Each of the 8 cities will host 8 teams (2 groups of 4) for the 1st and 2nd rounds. The groups are bunched following the bracket, i.e. the 1 vs. 16 game and the 8 vs. 9 game go together because the winners will play eachother in the second round. So the seeds that will be sent together to one site are as follows:
A. 1, 8, 9, 16
B. 2, 7, 10, 15
C. 3, 6, 11, 14
D. 4, 5, 12, 13
Since Cornell will be a 12-14 seed, we will inevitably fall in group C or D.
The commitee places the highest seeded teams, the #1 and #2 seeds (aka group A and B) in their geographically preferred sites first. Since the top 7 teams are pretty much locked up, we can project how this will go down-->
1. Tennessee plays in Little Rock or Birmingham
2. Memphis plays in Little Rock or Birmingham
3. UNC goes to Raleigh
4. Texas goes to Omaha or Little Rock
5. UCLA goes to Anaheim
6. Duke goes to Raleigh
7. Kansas goes to Omaha
48 of 64 teams will be sent to sites other than Washington or Tampa (8 teams go to each of these sites)
Since each of these top teams brings the 3 others in group A and B, that means that by my estimation 28 of the 48 non-Washington/Tampa sites have been filled.
Lets assume for a second that Cornell gets a #13 seed, that would put us in group D. Meaning we would hope that the #3 seeds (group C) be placed elsewhere. Here are some potential #3 seeds.
Vanderbilt (Birmingham or Little Rock)
Xavier (Washington)
Louisville (Birmingham)
Georgetown (Tampa??)
Stanford (Anaheim)
Wisconsin (Omaha)
The most likely of these teams to get a top 3 seed are Xavier, Stanford, and Georgetown. Georgetown can not be sent to Washington as they are the host of this site. Also we can assume Stanford is sent to Anaheim (along with UCLA), that eliminates the West Coast as a possibility.
Now we have 32/36 of 48 teams in sites other than Tampa and Washington, giving us quite a good chance of being placed there.
So it seems that Tampa and Denver have no geographical relationship to any of the top teams, and are therefore likely sites for Cornell, which will be in group C or D. I predict that if Cornell is a #13 seed, we're heading to Tampa, and if we get a #14 we're headed to Washington. Both of these are ideal outcomes for eastern fans.
Of course some of this may change in the next few weeks, and Selection Sunday is a mysterious madame, so stay tuned.
Anyone know if the Cornell ticket office will be getting tickets and what the procedure for getting those tickets will be?
I emailed Ticket Office Manager Gene Nighman gmn5@cornell.edu but have not received a response yet.
[quote jdonofrio]Anyone know if the Cornell ticket office will be getting tickets and what the procedure for getting those tickets will be?
I emailed Ticket Office Manager Gene Nighman gmn5@cornell.edu but have not received a response yet.[/quote]
Gene is probably receiving dozens of such requests every day.
The Cornell Ticket Office will presumably get its official allotment of tickets for the regional, (presumably) after a certain number are withheld for team families, etc. I'd bet money they won't release a procedure until after the selection show is over.
I called the ticket office and clicked 3 for info on basketball tickets. The message (which sounded like Gene) said something close to... "Although the men's basketball team has qualified for the NCAA tournament, we do not have exact ticketing information at this time. Please refer to cornellbigred.com for updates on tickets for the tournament." That's been the message since at least Monday.
CM cWo 44 peaked my interest on the location of our 1st round game. I decided to break it down from a different perspective.
Almost every 'bracketology' source has Cornell getting a 13 or 14 seed. I used bracket predictions that are linked from this site,
http://bracketproject.atspace.com/comparison.htm
and calculated the percentages of the brackets with the locations of their 4-13 and 3-14 matchup cities. The charts list the cities with the percent chance of Cornell's 1st round game being played there. (according to bracketology from ESPN, CSTV, SI, SNY.TV, Orlando Sentinel, etc.)
Here's what i came up with:
If we're a 13 seed:
Denver 44.4%
Tampa 27.7%
DC 22.2%
Omaha 5.5%
If we're a 14 seed:
Anaheim 25%
Tampa 22.2%
DC 22.2%
Omaha 16.6%
Birm. 8.3%
Denver 5.5%
13 or 14 seed:
Denver 25%
Tampa 25%
DC 22.2%
Anaheim 12.5%
Omaha 11.1%
Birm. 4.1%
Obviously, cities with very low percentages are relatively impossible to gauge because they are predicated on certain teams winning their conference tourney, not losing games they should win, etc. (The reason Anaheim is 25% on the '14 seed' list is that virtually every bracket had Stanford as a 3 seed. Their recent loss to USC should decrease their RPI and make them a lower seed.)
Bottom line? It looks like we're most likely going to be placed in Denver, Tampa or DC.
I (along with probably everyone else from the Capital Region to NYC to Ithaca), am sure hoping for DC! Looking forward to helping put something together (read: pre and post game designated bar) if it's here in Washington. Is it Selection Sunday yet!