A few minutes into the first game of the first round of the Division I Men's Basketball Championship, the atmosphere in the room serving as the NCAA "mission control" was diametrically opposed to the tension on the RCA Dome basketball court less than a mile away.

In a room tucked in the back of the NCAA national office in Indianapolis, a 12-foot-by-12-foot projection screen split four ways displayed the action at the four different sites for the first round of the tournament: Boise, Idaho; Indianapolis; Cleveland; and Tucson, Arizona. Bob Bowlsby, chair of the Division I Men's Basketball Committee; Tom Jernstedt, NCAA executive vice-president; Hank Nichols, NCAA coordinator of men's basketball officiating; and Greg Shaheen, NCAA vice-president for Division I men's basketball and championship strategies, sat before computer screens and talked on cellular phones, even laughing occasionally. Moments after the tip-off between Oklahoma and Niagara in Tucson, the last site to get started, Bowlsby got up to shake Shaheen's hand.

"Congratulations, we're underway," Bowlsby said.

In that handshake, Bowlsby, who led the committee through the selection process for the previous week, passed the baton to Shaheen, who would run the last leg to the Final Four in St. Louis. Obviously comfortable with his position as anchor, Shaheen took calls from officials at the different first-round sites about everything from media credentials to signage and answered questions from reporters on site in Indianapolis and on the telephone from around the country. Occasionally standing within inches of a television screen, he scrutinized the look of every game, down to the location of specific banners.

Never far from his side was the 218-page manual for the tournament, which includes every detail and guideline for championship hosts, no matter how small. Very little is left to chance -- though Jernstedt and Shaheen say that with the advice and assistance of various hosts of the event, the document has been pared down since he took the reins. Shaheen referred to it and a variety of other resources often to answer questions from host sites, even though each host site has its own copy of the document.

"That's what we're here for, to kind of walk them through things big and small, so they don't feel like they're in it alone," he said.

The efforts of Shaheen and his colleagues, the hosts and the basketball committee are designed to ensure that each student-athlete participating in the tournament has as similar an experience as possible. In other words, a student-athlete from Pacific who plays at 10:40 a.m. in Boise will have an arena with the same look and feel as the Fairleigh Dickinson student-athlete who plays in Indianapolis at 9:40 p.m.

While Shaheen and his colleagues are concerned with the actual workings of the tournament, just down the hall from their nerve center, other staff members monitor the experience for the television viewer. In two small rooms, they sport headphones to keep up with the CBS television coverage of each game, filling out reports for each broadcast.

The reports require the monitors to pay close attention, especially during the commercials. Not only do they record the appearance of NCAA public service announcements, educational, anti-gambling and promotional spots, but they also log the number, length and time of appearance of alcohol ads per broadcast window. Broadcasters are permitted to air four advertisements for beer, wine or malt beverages in a broadcast window. For the first round, a broadcast window included the first two games in a session. For example, the first broadcast window for a person monitoring the television coverage of the games in Indianapolis began about 20 minutes before tip-off of the opening game between Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky and ended at the conclusion of the Cincinnati-Iowa game.

In that time, broadcasters must air a minimum of four NCAA messages, one spot advertising ticket applications for the 2006 championship, one sports-wagering-awareness message and an educational spot produced in collaboration with NCAA corporate champion Coca-Cola.

Broadcasters are not required to refuse sponsorship from companies that are not NCAA corporate partners, but monitors make note of elements that occur during game commentary that are associated with a specific company -- for example the "Dasani Sideline Report" or "Cingular at the Half." They write down every time any NCAA brand or trademark appears verbally or visually, any instances of controversial officiating calls or use of instant replay and any instances of banned advertising. NCAA advertising and promotional standards restrict broadcasters from airing advertisements promoting gambling or casinos, tobacco, athletics recruiting services and any ads that contain unnecessary violence, and offensive or suggestive material. Advertising for certain drugs such as Viagra, Cialis and Levitra can appear only after 9 p.m. Eastern time. The ads were not permitted at all during the 2004 tournament.

In addition to making sure certain prohibited things don't happen, the monitors also record positive things that do happen -- such as instances of good sportsmanship.

All the information is then compiled into a spreadsheet that is available as soon after the end of the last game as possible. Each game also is recorded in the event that a monitor witnesses a violation. Chris Farrow, NCAA manager of broadcasting, said all the eyes scrutinizing each broadcast occasionally catch an infringement, but he said no major violations of the NCAA-CBS contract occurred during the first day of the tournament.

If there were a problem, Farrow would be able to provide a tape of the incident to Shaheen or another appropriate official.

"If there's anything we need to deal with right away, such as something being said on the air or there's a situation with an official, we would have the tape right away," he said.

Farrow also fields questions and complaints from the viewing public about the way local CBS affiliates broadcast the tournament. One complaint received on the tournament's first day came from a fan whose local affiliate chose to stick to its traditional noon newscast, joining the first tournament game about 40 minutes after tip-off. Decisions such as that, Farrow said, are made at a local level and the NCAA broadcasting staff can't force change.

One challenge that Farrow has to deal with in the nerve center occurs when one game is a blowout and CBS switches the feed to another, closer game. NCAA officials obviously need to keep all the sites on at all times for monitoring purposes, and some DirecTV subscribers might want to see their team beating another team by 30 points, even if another game is much closer or a surprising upset. Theoretically, each person should be able to press a button and return to their game of choice, but Farrow said that he often experiences problems with that process, as do many fans. Resolving that problem is an ongoing priority for CBS and the NCAA every year.

With one day of the tournament under their belts, the team in Indianapolis is at it again the next day, as it will be again on Saturday and Sunday and for the next two weekends.

Activity picked up on Saturday with the start of the women's basketball tournament, broadcast on ESPN. Then, the projection screen in "mission control" split like an amoeba and even more people scrutinized every minute of air time from all the locations hosting NCAA basketball. Their work will be part of the ultimate goal of staging the tournament for the benefit of the student-athletes who participate and the entertainment of the fans whose eyes are glued to every shot.