The NCAA is giving fans an opportunity to buy cardboard cutouts of themselves to be sent to the games at a cost of $100 apiece, with a portion of the purchase price going to the United Way of Central Indiana’s COVID-19 relief effort.
The NCAA said only one of the officials tested positive for the virus, but the other five were “identified as exposure risks due to prolonged close contact.”
Despite the current gridlock, NCAA President Mark Emmert said he is still hopeful the NCAA will have uniform national name, image and likeness rules in place before the start of next football season.
Six of the arenas that helped create Indiana’s basketball legacy will go on full display when the NCAA Tournament tips off later this week.
Although the University of Louisville is the first alternate to fill an open spot in the NCAA Tournament, Coach Chris Mack isn’t optimistic. Meanwhile, potential replacement squads Colorado State, Saint Louis and Mississippi are prepared to play in the National Invitation Tournament.
On Friday in Indianapolis, Lisa Byington will become the first woman to call play-by-play for an NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament game.
The Indiana Criminal Justice Institute says its Sober Ride Indiana pilot program will provide ride credits to the first 10,000 total rides through April 5. The program coincides with St. Patrick’s Day and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Teams must undergo a quarantine and testing period when they arrive in Indianapolis—and no one from the schools was allowed to make the trip without seven consecutive days of negative tests.
Forty-six teams had arrived in Indianapolis for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament by late Sunday, and each was given a COVID-19 test upon arrival.
IBJ columnist and investigative reporter Greg Andrews explains why the rights to March Madness are so valuable even as the media landscape changes quickly. And he tells host Mason King why it’s unlikely that the NCAA or its broadcast partners will want to renegotiate the deal—which runs through 2032.
Illinois and Ohio State are among nine Big Ten teams to win spots in the tournament, the most of any conference.
Gonzaga, Baylor, Illinois and Michigan earned the top seeds. Kansas and Virginia, two programs hit with COVID-19 breakouts over the past week, made it into the bracket released Sunday by the NCAA selection committee.
The teams are playing for an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament, although both teams are expected to make the field.
Big conference tournament games wound up as glum walkovers when teams withdrew due to COVID cases, leaving the question of whether the big bracket might suffer some similar fate, despite a bubble in Indianapolis.
Tickets for many of the early game have sold out, although there are still seats available for games at Lucas Oil Stadium, where capacity is the largest. For other venues, tickets on some of the bigger resale web sites were being advertised for more than $250. Most were less.
The media landscape is in the throes of dramatic change that creates uncertainty but also adds to the value of events like the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament that attract huge live audiences.
Construction of a convention center, a basketball arena, a football stadium, to start. Countless audacious moves by a long line of political and civic leaders put the city in the position for an historic achievement.
The cancellations create uncertainty about the programs’ ability to participate in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Indiana, which begins March 18.
The NCAA, Indiana Sports Corp. and Visit Indy are developing a program to help match teams with restaurants that are prepared to deliver.
Visit Indy plans to bring in a small group of “key decision-makers” from across the United States throughout the tournament, with the goal of letting major event executives safely see Indianapolis’ capabilities.
