INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee has enough to sift through this weekend without playing air traffic controller.
The 12 committee members will spend the next four days working up the eagerly anticipated 68-team bracket by following the same basic principles the panel always does: giving the top teams the highest seeds, making each of the four regions as competitive as possible and trying to keep as many teams close to home as it can.
For those that inevitably will have to travel great distances for March Madness, organizers of the men's and women's tourneys are pleading for patience. The partial government shutdown, increasing security concerns arising from conflict in the Middle East, the high volume of spring break travelers and a greater demand for charter flights may cause additional travel snafus in an already challenging month.
"We certainly understand that there are pressures on the system, but we hope they’re not going to be too disruptive and really impact people’s experiences. We’ll do everything we can to mitigate that,” committee chair Keith Gill said Wednesday. “One of the things that I’ve heard is ICE is taking up a lot of charter planes. I think the charter market is just demonstrably different than it has been."
Teams located 400 or more miles from the tourney site are allowed book charter flights through the NCAA’s travel service while those located closer are eligible for ground transportation reimbursement.
On Feb. 24, the NCAA sent a 12-page memo to athletic directors and men's and women's basketball coaches outlining some of projected obstacles this month. It warned of “significantly fewer” avaialble charter aircraft “and the potential TSA impact of the partial government shutdown.” Teams will get where they need to go, the NCAA said, but priority during next week's onslaught of games will be given to teams that win.
Travel obstacles are not supposed to be a factor when seeding and bracketing the tourney fields. Gill insisted committee members will not stray from that charge this weekend.
“I would say that certainly we feel like it will be able to be managed, and certainly we sent that memo out just to give people some understanding, hey, please be patient,” Gill said. “We’re going to focus on making sure that people have the best experience they can.”
The committe was also asked about a rash of late-season injuries involving key players ranging from North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson to Duke guard Caleb Foster, and Michigan guard L.J. Carson to Wisconsin forward Nolan Winter. Kansas star Darryn Peterson, considered a top NBA prospect, has also missed significant time this season.
“What we will try to do is essentially try to understand what we think the impact is and apply it appropriately,” Gill said when asked about the injuries. “In some cases, we actually have a good sample of teams playing without maybe their star player that certainly will inform those decisions, and others we’re going to have to kind of project and kind of make some determinations. It’s more art than science, I would say.”
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