Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader wonders if Kentucky fans travel too well for the Wildcats’ good. Tipton spoke to NCAA selection committee chair Ron Wellman on Wednesday and Wellman’s comments are interesting.
The selection committee can actually lessen the value of neutral-site wins if the winning team had a large majority of fans in the arena. Additionally, the committee puts more weight on victories on an opponent’s home court than neutral-site games.
Here is an excerpt:
The committee also can discount neutral-site victories if the winners had a large majority of fans in the arena, thus giving the game a home-court advantage, Wellman said.
The logical conclusion for Kentucky fans is to stay away from neutral-site games so UK can gain the maximum amount of value from victories.
“That’s an interesting point,” Wellman said on an NCAA-sponsored teleconference Wednesday. “I don’t think that any team is going to encourage their fans to stay away to gain added validity to a neutral– site game. I don’t know that that really has an impact upon what we are trying to do as a committee. We know those neutral sites sometimes are not as neutral as they are labeled to be. The committee takes that into consideration.”
