Doug wrote, in part..
>By the way, I never did quite understand the whole "If you are hosting a
>round of the tournament, you get to play games at home"  Most college
>sports don't give home advantage come playoff time other than college
>hockey.  Not all that fair to a college like Maine that has a small arena
>to call home and will never be granted any NCAA tourney action.

Sometimes "fair" loses to "get it done"?  The argument for the present
situation probably includes: (1) Although expenses get reimbursed, the
host school gets NO stipend, that I recall, for the work they do.  (2) A
hockey schools' Sports Information department needs to cover their own
school, and typically doesn't have the resources to be at two sites at
the same time.  (3) The Host school(s) provide valuable information to
the media, making the information we fans see much better.  (4) The
venues don't provide sufficient coverage.  (5) The NCAA might hire
"temps" or pick schools out of the tournament, but at greater cost and
probably lower quality.  And (6), the conferences are sometimes
shoe-string operations, stretched to market their teams and thus unable
to add a focus at a place that may or may not have anything to do with
their teams.

If this conjecture holds any water, we may be stuck with host schools.
However, if the NCAA continues its recent trend of minimizing travel,
maybe the hosting could be done by conference collaborations?  Just a
thought.

cheers, wayne