Ryan Vaughn: The NCAA tournament is uniting our city
It’s taken thousands of Hoosier residents willing to put community first in order to take Indy’s success to the next level.
It’s taken thousands of Hoosier residents willing to put community first in order to take Indy’s success to the next level.
It has been a year of uncertainty and pain. And while this basketball tournament brings a figurative new spring to Indiana, we also need to acknowledge the hard months that brought us here.
The Big Ten men’s and women’s basketball tournaments are underway in Indianapolis in advance of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament starting here next week. The women’s NCAA tournament will be in San Antonio. On Thursday, the Michigan State defeated No. 9 Indiana University, ousting it from the tournament in a year when the Hoosiers had […]
The Blue Devils abruptly had to pull out of the tournament and end their season due to a positive COVID-19 test, ending their streak of 24 consecutive NCAA appearances that began in 1996.
Much of the movement heading into Selection Sunday will occur later in the week, but there are seven tournaments wrapping up Monday and Tuesday.
Like PopCon, the NCAA is in the business of “fun.” Fun will not be had if you are worried about yourself and the people in which you come into contact. It is just as important for the world to see that Indianapolis, and Indiana-at-large is taking this undertaking seriously.
IBJ spoke to Butler University President James Danko and Athletic Director Barry Collier about how this years tournament and the school’s back-to-back trips to the Final Four—intertwine.
The state is expected to benefit from more than $140 million in economic impact and national exposure from the NCAA men’s basketball tournament alone, which will bring 67 games to Indianapolis, Bloomington and West Lafayette starting March 18.
Other than a few facilities that will be COVID testing sites, team lounges or overflow areas, most event spaces that usually glean revenue from tournament gatherings could be left out in the cold.
Players will lose their NCAA eligibility but are promised a minimum salary of at least $100,000 per year, full health care insurance coverage, and aree guaranteed up to $100,000 for college tuition should they end their pursuit of a pro basketball career.
A limited number of spectators will be allowed to attend the Big Ten Conference’s men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in Indianapolis this month, the conference announced Thursday morning.
The city will host an unprecedented number of games with the entire tournament being played in Indiana. But the pandemic will limit capacity at both games and restaurants.
Even after the NCAA said Feb. 19 that some spectators will be allowed at the games, local tourism officials and economists are still tempering their financial expectations.
Under a contingency plan released Thursday, the top four teams left out of March Madness will serve as potential replacements for any teams that are unable to participate due to COVID-19 issues.
Wednesday’s report card from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport looked at racial hiring and gender hiring for the 2019-20 season across college sports, including leadership at the Indianapolis-based NCAA headquarters.
You can also pre-register for IBJ’s NCAA bracket contest, where you can try to out-pick a number of local celebrities we’ll unveil in the coming weeks (including IBJ’s own “celebrities”—think Eight@8’s Mason King and CEO Nate Feltman).
A huge event that kicks off next month is hanging like a plum: the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Coverage from Selection Sunday on March 14 to the championship April 5 should bring an enormous payoff to Indiana, which will host all 67 games, and to Indianapolis specifically, which will host 55 of them.
With the entire tournament taking place in or near Indianapolis, there is no reason for the four geographic regions that have been a part of past NCAA brackets. The NCAA doesn’t have to ensure the best teams play closer to home.
The pandemic that landed March Madness in Indianapolis is also the complication that will strip some of the tournament’s ambience, but local officials are organizing safe activities.