What are your thoughts about this? Dan Wetzel suggested changing the Sweet 16/Elite 8 schedule so the Sweet 16 would end on Sunday, and also suggested that it be held at one site. The problem is you’d have to find cities large enough for 2 15,000 seat arenas or have one arena at 10-15K and one large arena.

Also, Tuesday night Elite 8 games are kind of rough.

https://sports.yahoo.com/this-ncaa-tourn...53930.html

(03-29-2021 10:33 AM)sctvman Wrote:  What are your thoughts about this? Dan Wetzel suggested changing the Sweet 16/Elite 8 schedule so the Sweet 16 would end on Sunday, and also suggested that it be held at one site. The problem is you’d have to find cities large enough for 2 15,000 seat arenas or have one arena at 10-15K and one large arena.

Also, Tuesday night Elite 8 games are kind of rough.

I like the traditional round schedule we've had in the past, but this is a unique year so I don't mind how they are doing it this year. Going forward though, once things "return to normal", if Fauci and Biden ever let us, I would prefer to go back to the old rounds-schedule. I liked the Thursday and Friday SW16 games.

I’d like to see the schedule shift to Friday-Monday for the first 2 weekends.

(03-29-2021 10:39 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(03-29-2021 10:33 AM)sctvman Wrote:  What are your thoughts about this? Dan Wetzel suggested changing the Sweet 16/Elite 8 schedule so the Sweet 16 would end on Sunday, and also suggested that it be held at one site. The problem is you’d have to find cities large enough for 2 15,000 seat arenas or have one arena at 10-15K and one large arena.

Also, Tuesday night Elite 8 games are kind of rough.

I like the traditional round schedule we've had in the past, but this is a unique year so I don't mind how they are doing it this year. Going forward though, once things "return to normal", if Fauci and Biden ever let us, I would prefer to go back to the old rounds-schedule. I liked the Thursday and Friday SW16 games.

Dangerously close to being a political post. Be careful.

Current vaccination rates, which are conservative given much more supply is coming via Johnson and Johnson, should see 170 million Americans age 18 and up fully vaccinated by the end of summer. This is conservative, and the number is likely to be as high as 200 million, It gets hard to get more at that point because the remaining 10-15% of adults includes anti vaxxers and Covid-19 refusniks. Nearly every college kid will have to be vaccinated to go to school.

That should be enough to easily fill the arenas even with a required "passport" to attend. Of course some governors will grandstand to oppose a vaccine card, but this is mostly virtue signalling to their base, as they themselves are pretty much all already vaccinated. Be that as it may, we should be back to normal. The >80% of American adults vaccinated will demand that they have the right to go back to normal. It'll only be the hard core refusniks left out.

People are already planning on this for the fall and later. And even for younger kids. The current timeline will see trials for 12-17 year olds, that is middle school and high school kids, completed before the end of Summer, and vaccination of this roughly 28 million children take place in the Fall, and actually should be mostly completed no later than Thanksgiving. That is in time for my Basketball league, and it should allow an earlyOctober (after first shot) return to onsite instruction for pretty much all High Schools and Middle schools. Unfortunately the trial dates for elementary aged children is a good three months behind, so K-6 timeline is more like the start of 2022 for vaccinations.

It's a long winded way of saying, if you want a vaccine, you should be able to get one before the end of summer, as nearly 1 million people a day complete their vaccine regime, and many more than that are getting their first of two shots.

So be more optimistic.

(03-29-2021 02:08 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(03-29-2021 10:39 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(03-29-2021 10:33 AM)sctvman Wrote:  What are your thoughts about this? Dan Wetzel suggested changing the Sweet 16/Elite 8 schedule so the Sweet 16 would end on Sunday, and also suggested that it be held at one site. The problem is you’d have to find cities large enough for 2 15,000 seat arenas or have one arena at 10-15K and one large arena.

Also, Tuesday night Elite 8 games are kind of rough.

I like the traditional round schedule we've had in the past, but this is a unique year so I don't mind how they are doing it this year. Going forward though, once things "return to normal", if Fauci and Biden ever let us, I would prefer to go back to the old rounds-schedule. I liked the Thursday and Friday SW16 games.

Dangerously close to being a political post. Be careful.

LOL ... as I said, I'd like to return to the old format. This was OK for a weird year, but IMO the Thursday and Friday SW16 games are better.

(03-29-2021 06:26 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(03-29-2021 02:08 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(03-29-2021 10:39 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(03-29-2021 10:33 AM)sctvman Wrote:  What are your thoughts about this? Dan Wetzel suggested changing the Sweet 16/Elite 8 schedule so the Sweet 16 would end on Sunday, and also suggested that it be held at one site. The problem is you’d have to find cities large enough for 2 15,000 seat arenas or have one arena at 10-15K and one large arena.

Also, Tuesday night Elite 8 games are kind of rough.

I like the traditional round schedule we've had in the past, but this is a unique year so I don't mind how they are doing it this year. Going forward though, once things "return to normal", if Fauci and Biden ever let us, I would prefer to go back to the old rounds-schedule. I liked the Thursday and Friday SW16 games.

Dangerously close to being a political post. Be careful.

LOL ... as I said, I'd like to return to the old format. This was OK for a weird year, but IMO the Thursday and Friday SW16 games are better.

I agree. Get back to the usual schedule. Although, I don’t remember Sweet 16 games starting at noon on Thursday. Is that when they started?

(03-29-2021 07:10 PM)esayem Wrote:  LOL ... as I said, I'd like to return to the old format. This was OK for a weird year, but IMO the Thursday and Friday SW16 games are better.

I agree. Get back to the usual schedule. Although, I don’t remember Sweet 16 games starting at noon on Thursday. Is that when they started?
[/quote]

I don't remember Sweet 16 games ever starting at noon on Thursday and Friday. They've always been in the evening, even when that round was televised in syndication and picked up by ESPN.

I can see where the networks would rather have two games on Monday-Tuesday than four games on Thursday-Friday.

As for me, I prefer the old schedule. It was weird to watch the Saturday-Sunday games and realize that they weren't playing to go to the Final Four.

Plus, if I'm a coach or administrator, I don't want to win a regional final on a Tuesday and turn right around and fly to another city for a Final Four game on Saturday. The Final Four is a big event, similar to a bowl game. Everyone associated with the program should have the extra couple of days to prepare for the next round. There's a difference in the turnaround between the rounds of 32/16 and between the regional final/Final Four.

(03-29-2021 10:33 AM)sctvman Wrote:  What are your thoughts about this? Dan Wetzel suggested changing the Sweet 16/Elite 8 schedule so the Sweet 16 would end on Sunday, and also suggested that it be held at one site. The problem is you’d have to find cities large enough for 2 15,000 seat arenas or have one arena at 10-15K and one large arena.

Also, Tuesday night Elite 8 games are kind of rough.

https://sports.yahoo.com/this-ncaa-tourn...53930.html

I don't think that's a huge problem.

There's probably 20-30 cities that have 2 arenas that hold 15,000+. There's probably 50-60 cities that have 2 over 10,000+.

(03-29-2021 07:10 PM)esayem Wrote:  

(03-29-2021 06:26 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(03-29-2021 02:08 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(03-29-2021 10:39 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(03-29-2021 10:33 AM)sctvman Wrote:  What are your thoughts about this? Dan Wetzel suggested changing the Sweet 16/Elite 8 schedule so the Sweet 16 would end on Sunday, and also suggested that it be held at one site. The problem is you’d have to find cities large enough for 2 15,000 seat arenas or have one arena at 10-15K and one large arena.

Also, Tuesday night Elite 8 games are kind of rough.

I like the traditional round schedule we've had in the past, but this is a unique year so I don't mind how they are doing it this year. Going forward though, once things "return to normal", if Fauci and Biden ever let us, I would prefer to go back to the old rounds-schedule. I liked the Thursday and Friday SW16 games.

Dangerously close to being a political post. Be careful.

LOL ... as I said, I'd like to return to the old format. This was OK for a weird year, but IMO the Thursday and Friday SW16 games are better.

I agree. Get back to the usual schedule. Although, I don’t remember Sweet 16 games starting at noon on Thursday. Is that when they started?

No, at least in recent years they were in the evening. For example, in 2019, the last time we had a regular tournament format, the four SW 16 Thursday games were at 7:10, 7:30, 9:40 and 10:00 PM. So staggered in the evening, with games 1 and 3 on CBS and 2 and 4 on TBS. Friday was the same timing.

(03-29-2021 02:08 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(03-29-2021 10:39 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(03-29-2021 10:33 AM)sctvman Wrote:  What are your thoughts about this? Dan Wetzel suggested changing the Sweet 16/Elite 8 schedule so the Sweet 16 would end on Sunday, and also suggested that it be held at one site. The problem is you’d have to find cities large enough for 2 15,000 seat arenas or have one arena at 10-15K and one large arena.

Also, Tuesday night Elite 8 games are kind of rough.

I like the traditional round schedule we've had in the past, but this is a unique year so I don't mind how they are doing it this year. Going forward though, once things "return to normal", if Fauci and Biden ever let us, I would prefer to go back to the old rounds-schedule. I liked the Thursday and Friday SW16 games.

Dangerously close to being a political post. Be careful.

Apparently the irony was lost along the path of calling half of Americans traitors...good lord

(03-29-2021 06:26 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(03-29-2021 02:08 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(03-29-2021 10:39 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(03-29-2021 10:33 AM)sctvman Wrote:  What are your thoughts about this? Dan Wetzel suggested changing the Sweet 16/Elite 8 schedule so the Sweet 16 would end on Sunday, and also suggested that it be held at one site. The problem is you’d have to find cities large enough for 2 15,000 seat arenas or have one arena at 10-15K and one large arena.

Also, Tuesday night Elite 8 games are kind of rough.

I like the traditional round schedule we've had in the past, but this is a unique year so I don't mind how they are doing it this year. Going forward though, once things "return to normal", if Fauci and Biden ever let us, I would prefer to go back to the old rounds-schedule. I liked the Thursday and Friday SW16 games.

Dangerously close to being a political post. Be careful.

LOL ... as I said, I'd like to return to the old format. This was OK for a weird year, but IMO the Thursday and Friday SW16 games are better.

I agree...I could somewhat handle a Friday/Monday format too. However, I love the the timing of the first four rounds on a Thurs-Sun format. US job productivity is probably better on a Fri-Mon for the opening weekend...so you have that. I still like Thurs-Sun better.

Sat-Tues is stupid.

If anything about college championships need to change, it is the late Monday night start for the CFP Championship. Please leave March Madness alone.

Return to the old format. I hated the Friday-Monday format. I found myself craving basketball that that Thursday and then borderline indifferent that Monday.

(03-30-2021 09:02 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  If anything about college championships need to change, it is the late Monday night start for the CFP Championship. Please leave March Madness alone.

A Monday night final is ok for college basketball, but not college football?

(03-30-2021 10:43 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(03-30-2021 09:02 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  If anything about college championships need to change, it is the late Monday night start for the CFP Championship. Please leave March Madness alone.

A Monday night final is ok for college basketball, but not college football?

One is a two hour event and the other is easily four.

(03-29-2021 10:33 AM)sctvman Wrote:  What are your thoughts about this? Dan Wetzel suggested changing the Sweet 16/Elite 8 schedule so the Sweet 16 would end on Sunday, and also suggested that it be held at one site. The problem is you’d have to find cities large enough for 2 15,000 seat arenas or have one arena at 10-15K and one large arena.

Also, Tuesday night Elite 8 games are kind of rough.

https://sports.yahoo.com/this-ncaa-tourn...53930.html

I like Wetzel, but this is one of his less good articles. He is a proponent of this idea because it is good for HIM. All the games in one spot, he can see them all! As opposed to the usual structure, where he chooses a Sweet 16 city and then basically sees only 3 games.

Keep with what it has been in the past.

The women's tournament might be heading in that direction. The Sweet 16 beginning in 2023 will only be played in two sites (eight teams per site). Ironically in their tournament they have 16 1st/2nd round sites per year (campus sites) rather than 8.

https://www.ncaa.com/womens-final-four/future-info

Obviously I get why the NCAA decided to have the entire NCAA Tournament (men's and women's) at one site but you have to wonder about the fatigue of the players spending all their time in one city and not being able to leave for three whole weeks (and Indianapolis and San Antonio aren't exactly the most tourist attraction cities). How many of you have spent three weeks away from home in the same city, especially with limited attractions available? And Big Ten men's teams had been in Indianapolis the week before, I'm guessing many of them didn't even go home between the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament like other schools did. So add another week "on the road" to them. Does it excuse their poor performance? Probably not but I don't think it wasn't a coincidence. Both the men's tournaments and women's tournaments had a record number of upsets and you don't see that in most tournaments. Again, I don't think it's a coincidence.

At the very least, the NCAA could have compressed the tournaments. They probably didn't have to play every day but how about every other day? They were playing regional finals on Tuesday nights and 2nd round games on Monday. The entire tournament could have been finished in two weeks and teams wouldn't have to be stuck in Indianapolis and San Antonio for days with nothing to do. UConn's team wound up at the San Antonio Zoo. When's the last time you heard a bunch of college kids at a zoo? They've been in San Antonio for three weeks. If the zoo was such an attraction, they would have been there the first week. In football, they did not choose a bubble environment and they only had four teams and two games.

I guess the 2021 NCAA Tournaments were better off than not having tournaments but to me they'll always have asterisks.

(03-29-2021 10:33 AM)sctvman Wrote:  What are your thoughts about this? Dan Wetzel suggested changing the Sweet 16/Elite 8 schedule so the Sweet 16 would end on Sunday, and also suggested that it be held at one site. The problem is you’d have to find cities large enough for 2 15,000 seat arenas or have one arena at 10-15K and one large arena.

Also, Tuesday night Elite 8 games are kind of rough.

https://sports.yahoo.com/this-ncaa-tourn...53930.html

What would be the point of having the games "at one site" but played at two different arenas? That's two sites, that could just as easily be in two different cities. Unless the idea is to create some sort of bubble in a post pandemic era, it doesn't make much sense to me.