NCAA Tournament

Today, we have a guest at Winthrop Eagle Blog. Winthrop's long time SID chimes in on the recent news regarding the new 68-team NCAA Men's basketball Tournament. Here are his thoughts...
If you are a college basketball fan and have not read or heard about the NCAA committee’s announcement about the format for the expanded men’s tournament, here are some thoughts from someone who has been involved in two of the 10 previous Opening Round games in Dayton, Ohio.
The new plan is being hyped as the “First Four” which is a rather catchy title to go along with the “Final Four”. The committee on expansion looked at three proposals and came up with a compromise that will pit the four highest conference automatic qualifiers based on RPI against each other with the winners earning the right to face two of the No. 1 seeds. The other four teams will come from the last four schools that were considered for at-large berths. These four schools will play for the right to advance against a No. 12 seed in the bracket. This is the simple part. The rest of the plan may present a logistical nightmare.
The committee apparently has designated Dayton (and deservingly so) as the site of all four games in 2011. Based on the information that was released on Monday, the plan calls for a doubleheader on Tuesday followed by another DH on Wednesday. Here is where the rub comes. None of the eight schools will find out for certain if they are in the opening round games (First Four) until Selection Sunday.
As soon as the announcement is made, the scramble is on for coaches, school administrators, players and their parents and fans. Finalizing travel plans for everyone concerned is a daunting task. Believe me, booking travel arrangements via airlines, acquiring ground transportation at the site, and reserving hotel rooms for a party of 75 people (players, coaches, support staff, cheerleaders/dancers and pep band can be a nightmare. For the four winners, the nightmare will have to be repeated just two or three days later when they will have to move the group to another site for a Thursday or Friday First Round game.
My heart will go out to the player parents and fans that have been loyal followers of the eight teams for the entire season. Many of them will be left out of the “Big Dance” experience due to logistical and/or economical reasons. That is the real shame.