Other NW teams

The upcoming game with Oregon reminds me of another topic. Apparently to get home playoff games in the first round, we need to have another NW team make the playoffs. It doesn't look like it'll be Washington. Maybe Gonzaga has the best chance. Oregon and OSU might be possibilities. Comments?

Congratulations, harryb, on becoming the 100th reistered user on PilotNation! Perhaps there is a prize for you. Like a sporty red Porche. Or perhaps a gold Rolex watch. (O.K. - I got a little carried away again. Sorry!)

You bring up an excellent point. I recall it has something to do with $$$. (Costs more to bring several teams to Portland than to send Portland out alone from the Northwest to another region.) Although this makes sense fiscally to the NCAA, it also seems incredibly unfair to make a team travel for the first two rounds of the tournament, when they have earned the right to host the first two rounds by way of a superior regular season.

That's my general understanding of it, although maybe someone like Purplegeezer or another member could give us the "official" version of this.

It certainly does give us reason to hope that at least one other Northwest team does well enough during the season to warrant a tourney berth.

You are on the right track, FAN.

If I remember correctly, the NCAA states that if a school has to travel more than a certain number of milies to get to a game (I want to say it was 300 or 350 miles), the NCAA will fly them and not make them drive (this makes sense).

The NCAA then organizes the tournament hosts by minimizing travel expenses... so if Portland was the host, they would look to bring in other teams that are within the "driving" distance, not flying distance. (And if I remember correctly, Spokane was just outside the driving distance, so even a Gonzaga team would have to fly here).

Portland didnt get to host a couple years ago (despite being the #1 ranked team) because there werent enough teams within the driving distance, so they shipped us to Nebraska (I think) where there are several schools nearby.

The problem with this method is that it focuses completely on the expenses, and fails to recognize the revenues. It is true that a game at almost any other school would gather little interest, so the focus is only expenses... at UP, however, there would be significant ticket and media revenues... not to mention the general exposure to the sport it would have.

Why doesnt the NCAA open this up to a bidding process?! That is what I dont understand.

And the current method has a significant East Coast bias, where there are MANY more schools within any geographic region, compared to the West Coast. Of course more teams are outside the "driving distance" on the west coast... schools are much farther apart here!

Does anyone know if anything was done to change this rule? I dont think I ever heard...

The closest schools, geographically are: PSU, OSU, UO, UW, WSU, Idaho, EWU, GU... I guess we really have to hope that 2 of these schools make it... Seattle U will be added in the coming years, too....

With our results recently, we really need to beat SCU to assure home field even if UO is in...