National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

January 12, 1998

Five cities chosen as finalists for future Final Four sites

The Division I Men's Basketball Committee, meeting December 15-17 in Tampa, Florida, selected five cities as finalists to host NCAA Final Fours from 2003 through 2005.

The finalists are Atlanta (Georgia Dome, Georgia Institute of Technology, host); Indianapolis (RCA Dome, Butler University and the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, cohosts); New Orleans (Louisiana Superdome, Sun Belt Conference and the University of New Orleans, cohosts); St. Louis (Trans World Dome, Missouri Valley Conference, host); and San Antonio (Alamodome, University of Texas at San Antonio, host).

The committee will invite representatives of the five cities to make presentations at its June meeting. The committee will then recommend three sites to the NCAA Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet for consideration later in the summer.

San Antonio's Alamodome will host the 1998 Final Four March 28-30. Future sites are Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1999; the RCA Dome in Indianapolis in 2000; the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis in 2001; and the Georgia Dome in Atlanta in 2002.

Mission research

In other actions, the committee met with representatives from the Taylor Research Group to discuss a preliminary plan for conducting research to determine a marketing and promotional mission for college basketball.

The Taylor Group is a firm that has been retained by the Basketball Marketing Subcommittee of the Division I Business and Finance Cabinet to conduct research in this area.

The committee also agreed to encourage Division I conferences to do a better job of enforcing Rule 3-2 of the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Rules, which limits conversation between a coach and game officials during a contest.

Other Highlights

Division I Men's Basketball Committee
December 15-17/Tampa, Florida

  • Directed the national office staff to provide the committee with cost estimates for reinstating the policy of providing meals for media representatives at all or selected rounds of the tournament.

  • Agreed to study the possibility of requiring conferences to use a portion of their conference grant funds to conduct background checks on basketball game officials and directed the staff to create a model for conferences to use.

  • Reviewed a preliminary seating configuration for the 1999 Final Four in St. Petersburg, Florida, and approved a tentative seating capacity of approximately 40,500.

  • Met with representatives of the Tampa Bay Organizing Committee, host for the 1999 Final Four.

  • Reviewed plans submitted by the National Association of Basketball Coaches regarding its annual convention to be held in conjunction with the 1998 Final Four in San Antonio.

  • Met with CBS representatives to discuss plans for the telecast of the 1998 Division I Men's Basketball Championship.

  • Agreed to have the participating Final Four teams meet with an FBI agent on the Friday before the national semifinals to discuss gambling-awareness issues. The FBI agent also will meet with the game officials during the Final Four weekend to discuss these same issues.

  • Reviewed several issues related to automatic qualification and requested that the Collegiate Commissioners Association submit recommendations regarding the following current automatic-qualification policies: (1) an eight-year waiting period for new Division I institutions; (2) a five-year waiting period for new Division I conferences; and (3) a maximum of 30 automatic-qualification berths.