Not really. We would be the 1-seed in the West Region, because we won’t pass UConn, Purdue, or Houston in the overall rankings, who would be slotted accordingly in the East, Midwest, and South Regions. Therefore, we would play in Charlotte or Memphis the opening weekend and advance to the West regional in Los Angeles.
Location doesn’t really matter. There’s not going to be anymore an overwhelming contingency of one fan base in any of these places. I don’t think our fans will travel any worse to LA than they would Detroit. There’s a slew of flights to DET out of Knox and even more to LAX out of Nashville. We’ll be well represented no matter where we play, but not enough to swing a result. Seeding and matchups matter much more than location.
1st/2nd round locations aren’t tied to any region at all, the region location is only where you go to for the 2nd weekend, so if you make it to the S16. They’ll place you in a region based on location as a preference starting with top seeds but then also trying to create a balanced region, they ideally don’t want to put the top 1 seed and top 2 seed into the same region. Charlotte and Memphis are the 2 closest first weekend locations so it’s almost a certainty we will be at one of those the first two rounds, the region location is more what’s up in the air.
A flight from Nashville to LAX for week 2 of the tourney is $300. Most fans that travel to NCAA regionals have plenty of disposable income to be able to take multiple days off work, pay for transportation, expensive weekend tickets, and price-surged lodging - all that to say, flying vs driving isn’t going to keep many at home, when almost all attendees would be there regardless.
Correct on locations, but that’s what most are saying, rather be the 1 seed with likely better matchups, as well as an Arizona as our 2 verse Houston, Purdue or UCONN as our 1. Vol fan are going to be very similar in numbers at any of those 4 regional sites, so I’m taking the higher seed and better matchups every time.
I didn’t say Dallas was easily drivable from Knoxville. It’s only 6 hours from Memphis and 9 hours from Nashville. My point was that for the thousands and thousands of fans and alums who live outside of East Tennessee, myself included, it’s easier to get there or Detroit than LA. I can be in Detroit in 5 hours or hop a cheap non-stop flight to Dallas, but I won’t go to LA - too damn expensive.
The only argument against is that multiple people can ride in the same car. But say you bring your family of 4 - you save $900 on flights, but you’re still spending in the few thousands for tickets and multiple rooms. Anyone who can afford that is taking the 2-4 hour flight for convenience. Not to get too judgmental on people’s decisions here, but if you can’t afford the extra money for the convenience of the flight to any of these locations, you probably can’t afford to be going to them period.
Exactly. I’d even make an argument that LA or Dallas would bring the most Vol fans. I’m personally not going to another tourney game until we make the F4 (hopefully in a few weeks) but I’d much rather go to a place that has endless nonstop flight options and more to do outside of the time I’m watching basketball. Both of those locations offer that and I think you’d see it reflected in our fan representation.
I agree that we are everywhere. But the closer you get to the state of TN (not necessarily Knoxville), the greater chances of more fans. There are 10,000 UT alumni in Shelby County alone, which is 6 hours from Knoxville.
