A Very Early Complaint about the NCAA Regionals

[triaddukefan]

I was looking up the dates for the Regionals, and I see that the Fresno and Des Moines Regionals are the Saturday/Monday dates, and the Raleigh and Kingston Regional having the Sunday/Tuesday dates. One question is why would you have two Regionals in the same time zone scheduled for the same date? Unless they change it.. The Raleigh Regionals will start at 12pm and 2:30pm, and the Kingston being 4:30 and 7pm starts. While I hate the early Sunday start in Raleigh... its the Tuesday game that really is complaint worthy. Looks like Kingston gets the 7pm slot... and Raleigh gets the 9pm slot... on a TUESDAY night. Both the Fresno and Des Moines Finals are slated for 6pm tip-off local time on Monday night Maybe its just me... but it makes more sense to have the two eastern sites on different days to avoid such a late start for the finals. I remember attending the 2008 regional final in Greensboro. between UCONN and RU. Think it tipped off around 9:15pm. Whereas the Tenn/TAMU regional in Oklahoma City got a 6pm local tip. Such a late tip off virtually eliminates the attendance of alot of kids and their families due to school the next day. Personally... if Duke makes the Regional Final in Raleigh... and happens to win it.... It will be close to 1230am before I get back home if we lose. If Duke happens to win to advance to the Final 4... I probably wont be getting home until 1am.

Hopefully the NCAAs and ESPN can do something about this scheduling in the future.

 

[UcMiami]

I have given up trying to make sense of anything to do with the NCAAs - locations, seedings and locations teams get sent to, and times. To be fair on the locations, most of them are multi-purpose so the dates/times have to be worked around everything else.

 

[alexrgct]

My guess is that they're hoping to be able to feature popular teams in both Raleigh and Kingston, so they want to air both games to a national audience. Kingston gets the earlier time slot because it's in the middle of nowhere, relatively speaking.

As a television viewer, I'm actually annoyed that the Fresno and Des Moines finals are at the same time. That seems wrong. What if I wanted to watch both games?

 

[FairView]

What I don't like is that it's Sunday/Tuesday. That makes it a three-workday trip to the regional. I know, RI is close enough to drive home after the Tuesday game, but staying in the area and savoring the victory at a local restaurant, bar or whatever with your UConn garb proudly displayed is part of the experience. Fri-Sun and Sat-Mon were better. I guess this spacing competes less with the boys's games for TV viewership, but it's a pain for going to the games.

 

[triaddukefan]

As a television viewer, I'm actually annoyed that the Fresno and Des Moines finals are at the same time. That seems wrong. What if I wanted to watch both games?

Oh no................ they dont start at the same time. Des Moines starts at 7pm and Fresno at 9pm EST. I was just saying they both start at 6pm local time as opposed to Kingston and Raleigh's 7 and 9pm local time starts.

 

[rington]

What I don't like is that it's Sunday/Tuesday. That makes it a three-workday trip to the regional. I know, RI is close enough to drive home after the Tuesday game, but staying in the area and savoring the victory at a local restaurant, bar or whatever with your UConn garb proudly displayed is part of the experience. Fri-Sun and Sat-Mon were better. I guess this spacing competes less with the boys's games for TV viewership, but it's a pain for going to the games.

the eastern regionals have been Sunday/Tuesday for quite a few years.

 

[rington]

What I don't like is that it's Sunday/Tuesday. That makes it a three-workday trip to the regional. I know, RI is close enough to drive home after the Tuesday game, but staying in the area and savoring the victory at a local restaurant, bar or whatever with your UConn garb proudly displayed is part of the experience. Fri-Sun and Sat-Mon were better. I guess this spacing competes less with the boys's games for TV viewership, but it's a pain for going to the games.

That's what it is; less conflict with boy's.