![]() Plus Greenville is awesome enough to hold up for an entire region. I’m a little light on the Southeast, but it’s my setup and I do what I want. This may seem like an odd choice to some. Regionals: Boston Chicago Nashville San FranciscoĪnyone who knows me knows I have a semi-reasonable infatuation with Des Moines, which features multiple excellent beverage purveyors and an arena that’s an easy walk from a downtown that never feels overcrowded.Dallas-Fort Worth Des Moines, Iowa Denver Portland, Ore. ![]() To do this exercise honestly, I’ll stay mostly in line with the NCAA’s usual spread of locales stretching from coast to coast. But it doesn’t hurt when the options for grub and beverages are excellent, and the city itself is fairly easy to get around. Jeremy K.īrian: Any site, of course, is a good site. This can be based on arena, nightlife, food, things to do in the area, etc. The eight best first-/second-round sites, the four best regional sites, the best Final Four site. Build your ultimate NCAA Tournament sites trip. ![]() A revitalized Syracuse men’s hoops program, playing where it belongs, could lift a lot of boats - much like it has for UConn. Probably not likely to convince a place with a former television executive as athletic director to deprioritize football, and the grant-of-rights legal entanglements likely make this a non-starter. ![]() Harder to manage out of the Atlantic 10, of course … but that’s still a glaring absence. Dayton says it o perates like a power conference program, but it also hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2017 (Pour another one out for the 2019-2020 Flyers). The league would prioritize programs that make the NCAA Tournament regularly, because it doesn’t want to bring in fewer tournament units - and thereby less money - and split the pot with the same number of members or more. If UConn bolts, I don’t know that there’s a brilliant fit out there. Money has a way of getting presidents and administrators to twist logic beyond all recognition, so I also have zero confidence UConn stays where it belongs. UConn belongs in the Big East, full stop. Short answer: Just because UConn might make a rash decision, that doesn’t mean the Big East ought to follow.īrian: There is no argument against. ![]() Dayton and Saint Louis are viable options, for example, but which can be immediately Big East ready? I’d argue Dayton more, but how does Xavier feel about that? Gonzaga remains a really tricky, if not geographically impossible, pipe dream. Loyola Chicago’s stutter move to the Atlantic 10, I’d imagine, gives everyone pause. The league does not need to expand just to expand it needs to expand only if it’s going to help the conference. While everyone else chases their tails and reinvents their identities on the fly, the Big East’s success is based on selectivity and knowing what it is. Alas.Īs for Big East expansion, Val Ackerman is on record about being very cautious about movement, and rightly so. I would think it would behoove university administrators to listen to their coaches in the trenches, and think real hard about doubling down on a sport in which they have a financially-draining relationship with the state for use of a stadium, and no discernible track record in winning. But coaches’ opinions are rarely sought when it comes to conference realignment. I would love to think that Dan Hurley, hot off a national title, and Geno Auriemma, who is personally responsible for most of the trophies in the UConn cases, would have a say. ![]()
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