Why are Duke & NC playing in NC?

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Moonlight

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I don't understand why Duke and North Carolina are playing in North Carolina. Greensboro is just down the road. And hasn't this happened before?
 

I thought it has something to do with being the host.. same situation the gophers couldnt be in minneapolis?

I dunno.. but if we actually get to the Duke game I'll be too giddy to care.
 

Greenboro is 56 miles from Durham and Chapel Hill.
 

We cant play in Minneaolis cause the University of Minnesota is hosting the tourney here.
 

UNC Greensboro must be the host for that region, just like Detroit Mercy is the host for Detroit. Nice way of skirting around it for those big boys. Maybe St. Thomas or Hamline can go D-1 so they can host the Minneapolis games in future NCAA tournaments :)
 


coolhandgopher said:
UNC Greensboro must be the host for that region, just like Detroit Mercy is the host for Detroit. Nice way of skirting around it for those big boys. Maybe St. Thomas or Hamline can go D-1 so they can host the Minneapolis games in future NCAA tournaments :)
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In the past, it was always the ACC that hosted the NCAA tournament games in Greensboro.
 

here's the NCAA's list of hosts for 2009

GophersInIowa said:
In the past, it was always the ACC that hosted the NCAA tournament games in Greensboro.
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Yep, its the ACC as a conference who is hosting in Greensboro. See NCAA press release here: http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?ContentID=4532. Looks like that's how they get around it. The conference is hosting so it technically doesn't break the host school rule. BS if you ask me.
 

GoAUpher said:
Yep, its the ACC as a conference who is hosting in Greensboro. See NCAA press release here: http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?ContentID=4532. Looks like that's how they get around it. The conference is hosting so it technically doesn't break the host school rule. BS if you ask me.
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Even if the ACC didn't host it there, neither Duke nor UNC would ever be the host in Greensboro. Greensboro is over 50 miles away from Chapel Hill and Durham. In fact there are at least four schools that I can think of that are closer to Greensboro than Duke and UNC (UNC-Greensboro, Wake Forest, High Point, and Elon).
 

It's happened before. Probably will happen again. Most teams have to cross a least 1/4 of the USA to play and the NC teams get to play with a home crowd. Doesn't seem kosher to me.
 



Same Scenario As Bowl Games

Many times, the ACC and SEC teams are playing in their back yards. That's just how it is.
 

Duke would rather play in Philly than Greensboro. The latter crowd will be mostly UNC fans. In Philly, Duke would have a huge fan base. In NC, it's a hostel crowd outside of Cameron Indoor
 


Pewterschmidt said:
Duke would rather play in Philly than Greensboro. The latter crowd will be mostly UNC fans. In Philly, Duke would have a huge fan base. In NC, it's a hostel crowd outside of Cameron Indoor
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What a Dukie you are, Pewter!
Perhaps since Duke fans then won't be making the long, expensive, difficult trip into hostile environs, Gopher fans will be able to score some of their allotted tickets.
 



This isn't uncommon at all for No. 1, No. 2, or even No. 3 seeds. The committee rewards teams with games close to home when they are top seeds. UNC and Duke are top seeds on an almost annual basis, therefore they often play close to home. I remember during Illinois' run to the 2005 championship game, they played first round games in Indianapolis (100 miles from home), regional games in Chicago (130 miles from home), and Final Four games in St. Louis (170 miles from home). They and their fans never had to step foot on a plane and they had a huge homecourt edge in all of the games, including the Final Four contests. They were also a No. 1 seed.
 

tjgopher said:
This isn't uncommon at all for No. 1, No. 2, or even No. 3 seeds. The committee rewards teams with games close to home when they are top seeds. UNC and Duke are top seeds on an almost annual basis, therefore they often play close to home. I remember during Illinois' run to the 2005 championship game, they played first round games in Indianapolis (100 miles from home), regional games in Chicago (130 miles from home), and Final Four games in St. Louis (170 miles from home). They and their fans never had to step foot on a plane and they had a huge homecourt edge in all of the games, including the Final Four contests. They were also a No. 1 seed.
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Exactly. Get a higher seed get geographical preference. If we were a top 4 seed we would probably be playing in KC this weekend, but as a 10 we go where we are needed to fit in the bracket. Win and be rewarded, its that easy.

If we want to have any chance for the U to play here, you can have the Big 10 host at the dome. However then you spread the profits from hosting a regional across the entire big 10 and not just into the U of M's pockets....
 

Something to keep in mind is that its possible (little help here) that all those UNC people would actually cheer against Duke. The Big Ten generally cheers for its fellow members, but this is on a different level and given a remotely compelling story the hatred might be intense enough that UNCers and other Greensboro folk would cheer against the blue-blood Dukies.

Any thoughts?
 

If you want to talk about BS, look at Villanova. Since St. Joe's is hosting the games in Philadelphia, Villanova gets to play there. On a court where they play several home games.
 

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