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NCAA looking at Indianapolis for potential location for bubble-like March Madness tournament

Kristian Dyer

By Kristian Dyer

Published:

The NCAA Tournament will have a very different look in 2021 with all the Madness in one location.

It appears that Indiana is going to be the hub of the college basketball world for the NCAA Tournament.

In an announcement made on Monday morning, the NCAA is favoring a reduction from 13 host cities to one geographic location due to the logistical nightmare imposed by COVID-19. Already, the Big Ten has seen several football games cancelled due to the coronavirus including this past weekend’s game between Maryland and No. 3 Ohio State.

Four SEC games were all cancelled this weekend.

Due to the intense scheduling of the tournament, the NCAA decided that a quasi-bubble solution for the tournament is the best route to go, emulating to a certain extent professional sports leagues such as the NBA and MLS that returned back to play in a bubble.

It may not be a true bubble scenario but it allows the NCAA greater control, something that is important when keeping the tournament on schedule and moving.

“We coalesced around a decision that we are not going to be able to host the tournament in 13 different sites,” said Mitch Barnhart, athletic director at Kentucky.

“It was just due to the pandemic, it was unreasonable to expect that. We had an opportunity to monitor other sports championships and sports league and things that they have done to try and have success in running their tournaments. We felt like getting to one geographic location gave us the best opportunity for the safety and health of the participants, the officials and all the workers that are putting that thing on just to have the opportunity to get a really, really special championship and crown a really, really special champion in 2021.”

Last year, March Madness was cancelled as the pandemic began to ramp up nationally.

Kristian Dyer