NCAA scheduling changes?

[kingpin248]

The now all-but-inevitable conflict in Iraq may force some NCAA championships to change their scheduling, according to an article from the AP. As you might expect, the majority of the article is concerned with basketball, but the last line:

"[NCAA president Myles] Brand said other championships, such as those in men's and women's swimming and diving and men's and women's ice hockey, would also have to be considered."

Just something to keep in the back of your head.

The piece is here: http://espn.go.com/ncb/news/2003/0317/1525314.html



Post Edited (03-18-03 09:32)

[Greg Berge]

There's not a lot those of us with plane tickets can do about it, other than show up 2 more hours in advance and hope for a coup d'etat.

Flying on Thursday is going to be fun.  It seems like the smaller the city, the more convinced the locals are that they're a significant terrorist target.  "We will bomb Nike and bring the Great Satan to her knees."

[Al DeFlorio]

Maybe the NCAA will reinstitute regionalization again and we'll avoid Yost.;-)

[Adam]

As funny as it seems, that's exactly what they may do.

[Melissa\'01]

Hmmm. If us, BU and UHN are all # 1 seeds after this weekend and they do regionalization, does that mean UHN becomes a #2? VERY interesting.

[CrazyLarry]

No, the NCAA talks about 'seeding' the top 25% of teams in the tourney and ignoring regionalization for those teams.  Everybody else would be regionalized, but 3 eastern #1s means someone goes west to allow them to reap the 'rewards' of their 1 seed.  In theory, good, in practice, with the host team bit, it's a bit dubious.

[Adam]

From Adam Wodon's USCHO article today:

"Last season, the NCAA put travel restrictions in place, which left the committee with little flexibility. Those restrictions are no longer in place, but with a war in Iraq looming, would they return?

"We're taking a look at all possible contingencies," said NCAA Dir. of Championships, Tom Jacobs. "There is not a policy as there was last year, and keeping teams within a certain radius. So now it's pretty much business as usual in terms of what we had prior to last year. But it's a pretty fluid situation, it could change on a daily basis."'

[Greg Berge]

We've had an additional year to put safety procedures in place at airports.  If they're looking for political cover for not reinstating regionalization, they can use that.

[atb9]

It was just announced that the NCAA will go ahead with games as scheduled as of now.



Post Edited (03-18-03 18:03)

[Bill Fenwick]

Adam Brown '03 wrote:

It was just announced that the NCAA will go ahead with games as scheduled as of now.

As I understand it, this refers only to tournament action this week and weekend, which includes the Div. III men's hockey tourney, Div. I and III women's hockey tourneys, and whatever tournament CBS is showing, among others.  I'm not sure this guarantees all tournament action for the foreseeable future will take place as scheduled.

Here's a link to the article on USCHO:  [a href="http://uscollegehockey.com/news/2003/03/18_006531.php"]http://uscollegehockey.com/news/2003/03/18_006531.php[/a]

[kingpin248]

The selection show's start time has been moved to 6 p.m.  It may have to be bumped from ESPN to ESPNews, because of the possibility that ESPN may have men's ba$ketball coverage.

http://www.uscho.com/news/2003/03/20_006537.php



Post Edited (03-20-03 15:30)

[Tub(a)]

[q]It seems like the smaller the city, the more convinced the locals are that they're a significant terrorist target.[q]

To be fair, the Buffalo airport is very close to the Canadian border. A lot of illegal immigrants come in through the Buffalo area, so that is why the airport is more concerned about security.