SelectionSunday
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Correcting a mistake: In 2016 NCAA will go back to calling it "1st" and "2nd" rounds
Good move by the NCAA, it's silly to call the opening Thursday-Friday games "2nd round" and the Saturday-Sunday games "3rd round."
Gophers will have to swap out their (2013) NCAA Tournament banner, however. It notes "3rd round."
The press release:
"Following the creation of the First Four, the committee changed the name of the Thursday-Friday games from the first round to the second, and the Saturday-Sunday games from the second round to the third, in an attempt to clarify any misperceptions that First Four games were so-called “play-in” games.
"After four consecutive years of a First Four winner advancing to at least the third round, highlighted by VCU’s trip to the Final Four in 2011 and Sweet 16 appearances by LaSalle in 2013 and Tennessee in 2014, the committee voted last week to rename the opening weekend’s games to first- and second-round games, beginning with the 2016 championship.
“'The purpose of referring to those games as the second and third rounds was to sway people to use first round or better yet First Four when referencing the games in Dayton,'” said Dan Gavitt, NCAA vice president for men’s basketball. “No one in our membership was fond of ‘play-in’ games because of the implication that you had to win those games to make the tournament, which couldn’t be further from the truth. People now understand the First Four is the start of the tournament, so it will continue to be branded as such, and the weekend games will now go back to being the first two rounds.”
Good move by the NCAA, it's silly to call the opening Thursday-Friday games "2nd round" and the Saturday-Sunday games "3rd round."
Gophers will have to swap out their (2013) NCAA Tournament banner, however. It notes "3rd round."
The press release:
"Following the creation of the First Four, the committee changed the name of the Thursday-Friday games from the first round to the second, and the Saturday-Sunday games from the second round to the third, in an attempt to clarify any misperceptions that First Four games were so-called “play-in” games.
"After four consecutive years of a First Four winner advancing to at least the third round, highlighted by VCU’s trip to the Final Four in 2011 and Sweet 16 appearances by LaSalle in 2013 and Tennessee in 2014, the committee voted last week to rename the opening weekend’s games to first- and second-round games, beginning with the 2016 championship.
“'The purpose of referring to those games as the second and third rounds was to sway people to use first round or better yet First Four when referencing the games in Dayton,'” said Dan Gavitt, NCAA vice president for men’s basketball. “No one in our membership was fond of ‘play-in’ games because of the implication that you had to win those games to make the tournament, which couldn’t be further from the truth. People now understand the First Four is the start of the tournament, so it will continue to be branded as such, and the weekend games will now go back to being the first two rounds.”
