NCAA should stop playing Tournament games in football stadiums

As Villanova guard Scottie Reynolds zigzagged his way down the court, hung in the air and floated in a shot with 0.5 seconds remaining, the crowd of 18,871 at the TD Banknorth Garden wildly erupted. They held their breath when Pittsburgh guard Levance Fields’ three-quarter court heave smacked off the backboard, ending one of the best games in NCAA Tournament history.
But not all tournament games have had the same environment as the Villanova-Pitt classic. There have been several instances throughout the tournament’s first four rounds where teams have played in front of distant crowds and empty arenas.
It is not the players’ fault or the fans’ fault, but rather it is a gripe that I have with the NCAA. And I offer this memo to the NCAA: stop playing tournament games in NFL venues.
The NCAA constantly schedules tournament games in NFL arenas, like they did this year with the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, University of Phoenix Stadium and Ford Field in Detroit, which hosts the championship game April 6.
The Metrodome, which hosted first round games, drew a crowd of 12,814 for a game between seventh-seeded Boston College and 10th seeded USC. The defending national champion, Kansas drew a similar of crowd of 15,000 in the same arena for its first round game against North Dakota State and an even smaller crowd for its second round game against Dayton.
The 15,000 fans is not the problem — that is a solid basketball crowd — but inside the Metrodome, which has a capacity of 50,000, it looks like a small smattering. Think about this — that is about 30 percent full.
The University of Phoenix Stadium, which hosted the West Region finals between Connecticut and Missouri, drew a crowd of 18,886 — a number that would have sold out the Phoenix Suns 18,422 seat US Airways Center. Instead, those people filed into a 63,000-seat stadium. There were empty seats behind the baskets.
You cannot argue that it creates a scheduling conflict with the Suns because the NBA is smarter than to schedule a game during the same dates as the NCAA Tournament or they simply send the Suns on a three-game road trip like they did this year. The arena is available — it is not that hard to make a call and book the US Airways Center for three days.
The crowd in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Colts, drew the best among NFL venues thus far at 36,000, and that comes as a result of the proximity of the two schools. Louisville is just a two-hour ride and Michigan State is four hours, but the 36,000 only filled the lower bowl. Why not scale back on tickets for the regional final and play the game at Canseco Fieldhouse, where a similar atmosphere to the Villanova-Pitt game can be created.
Not only is it not aesthetically pleasing to watch a regional final with thousands of empty red seats, but it takes away from the atmosphere of the game.
Basketball has traditionally been a sport where fans are right on top of the players. Think of places like Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Dean Smith Center or Freedom Hall. The fans create the great environment that college basketball has been known for.
I’m not saying that tournament games should be played in these on-campus gyms, but the point is that putting 15,000 to 18,000 fans inside a 55,000-seat arena creates a non-environment. The noise just gets lost inside the vastness of the place.
This leads us to the case the championship game, which will be in Detroit at the home of the NFL’s Lions, Ford Field. There is no doubt that 78,000 will pack inside Ford Field and it will be loud — especially with Michigan State fans who are just up the road in East Lansing participating — but even then the environment is the same. You are so high up that you need a pair of binoculars to read the names on the back of a guy’s shirt.
Call me stupid, but I still don’t understand why you would shell out $275 a piece for a ticket in section 347, as the price was listed on StubHub. My couch in front of a high-def television screen gives me a better seat than that. But people still shell out that kind of dough. If I could get my hands on that ticket for under $70 then I might consider it, but to cough up close to 300-large, even if I was a fan of one of the four remaining teams, is ridiculous.
I just don’t see the benefits of playing basketball games inside these oversized and overpriced venues. You do not see the Pistons asking for their playoff or NBA Finals games to be moved from the Palace of Auburn Hills to Ford Field.
But hey, it is the NCAA, and if there is one thing we know about the NCAA it is that they will do anything to take your money. They are probably asking themselves how they can try and expand the complex to fit more seats because 78,000 are not enough.
Maybe — and I hope they at least address it — the NCAA will fix this problem in the future, but until then, the environment that was on display Saturday night in Boston will still be few and far between.

- Kyle Franko accepts all comments and criticism at kjfranko@eden.rutgers.edu