Eric Burton wrote:

(the quoting in the message where I'm replying is haphazard enough that I'm
not 100% sure I'm replying to something written by Eric Burton...)
>
> Thats the brutal reality, Westerns school have bigger fan bases that
> pack huge arenas and the NCAA is all about the money. UND, UofMN and
> UofWisc have on average 9,000-10,000 fans to watch them play. Whats
> the crowds like in the east. 4000-5000.

Let's get real here -- it's not about the western fan bases that pack huge
arenas, it's about the western fan bases that are very spread out and
consequently don't travel well enough to support a regional that doesn't
have a "home" team -- or should we bring up the fiasco in Wisconsin again?
Sure, they'll pack an arena if the "home" team is there, which is good
business, but the bigger issue IMO is that there'll be a lot of members of
those huge fanbases disguised as empty seats if there's not a local draw.
So a Michigan or a Minnesota who's pretty confident about making the
tournament and cleaning up (or, in the worst case, muddling through if they
don't make it, but probably doing OK on presales to confident fans) bids on
the tournament at their rink.