2011 NCAA tournament format

Some of you may be aware that the NCAA tournament Format has changed. Last Fall, the NCAA approved a change to a 1-1-2-2 format, with the third weekend Pods being decided according to attendance and fan support as well as ranking determining the location of the four team pods for the sweet 16 and Quarterfinals. There was also a proposal to unify the men's and women's NCAA final fours at the same site.

Then in February there was a proposal to change that to a 1-2-1-2 format when the Mens and women's committees didn't come to an agreement on unification.

That proposal passed, it was just announced.

Greg Johnson, NCAA.org
Last Updated - July 6, 2011 3:55 GMT
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INDIANAPOLIS -- The NCAA Division I Championships/Sports Management Cabinet, during its conference call on June 24, approved a standardized date formula for the Women’s College Cup to ensure that the women’s final will always be the weekend before the men’s championship.

The cabinet approved a “standardization of date formula” that puts the Women’s College Cup on the first full weekend in December – Friday to Sunday – even if Dec. 1 should fall on a Saturday, as it does in 2012.

Beginning in 2012, the Women’s College Cup will take place the first weekend in December. In years where Dec. 1 falls on Saturday, it will count as the first weekend of the month with competition taking place on Friday and Sunday. The 2012 dates for the semifinals and finals of the Women’s College Cup are Nov. 30 and Dec. 2.

Cabinet members also approved a 1-2-1-2 format for the 2011 women’s championship. The first weekend of the tournament will consist of first-round matches at 32 sites. The second and third rounds will be held the next weekend, with four teams competing at eight sites. Quarterfinal matches will be at four sites over Thanksgiving weekend, followed by the semifinals and finals on the Friday and Sunday of the next weekend.

What is not clear is if the travel rules have been suspended. Under the 1-1-2-2 system, there was wording that the other considerations were to override the hated travel rules that have sent UP on the road when it was high seed year after year.

I don't see any wording that this is still the case, so there are two possible consequences for UP.

1) We are assured that our seeding, attendance figures, and fan support will ensure we have home dates when we are high seed. Game location will be based on merit. The prospect was that we would never again have to travel as high seed. This was the wording in the first proposal that passed. As part of run-up to it's passing, there was an assertion that even without the travel rules, the NCAA would save money with the 1-1-2-2 system

2) Game locations will still be subject to the travel rules, with one major change for UP.
Since the four team travel pods are now on the second weekend, there will only be 8 pods and 32 teams from which to construct them. This would make it even more likely UP would have to travel.

There is no wording that indicates which path we are on, so until the tournament handbook comes out ( usually in September or October) we won't know which it is.

Knowing how the NCAA operates, my paranoia is way up.