The process of building a NCAA Tournament bracket has a number of constraints on it. Since Sept. 11, 2001, a major part of the process has been geography.
Well, at least in most sports.
The NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament committee, for example, wouldn’t think twice about flying Wake Forest to Sacramento, which it did in 2002.
Still, there is a feature in the Division I championship which does give me some pause. Three out of the eight subregionals (rememeber: these are on campus sites) are located within a radius of 14 miles.
Don’t believe me? Take a map of Maryland, and fetch a compass or a water glass. Center whatever measuring devide you choose, and center it on the military installation at Fort Meade. If you draw a circle, you will encapsulate Homewood Field (the home of Johns Hopkins), Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium (the home of the U.S. Naval Academy), and SECU Stadium (the home of the University of Maryland) at a radius of about 14 miles.
Now, we’ve seen this before, especially during the time when both Duke and North Carolina have been in the national conversation in either lacrosse or field hockey, The tournament committees in both sports have never been shy to put tournament games at either end of Tobacco Road.
Or, when needed, move one host spot out. In 2003, for example, three out of the top four seeds in the Division I field hockey tournament were Wake Forest, North Carolina, and Duke — three schools separated by about 80 miles. But the committee moved Wake Forest’s bracket quarter to Storrs, Conn., and North Carolina’s quartet was moved to East Lansing, Mich.
Compare that to the geographical balance of this year’s tournament.