NCAA Investigations

Carrier Dome remains ideal venue for East Regional despite Syracuse University athletic program violations

The NCAA did not discuss changing venues for the NCAA Tournament East Regional following the organization’s report released in early March regarding Syracuse University’s athletic program, an NCAA official said.

David Worlock, the NCAA director of media coordination and statistics, said Thursday there were no discussions about the possibility of changing the venue location, adding that the report and hosting the regional are “unrelated things.”

The NCAA released a 94-page report on March 6 outlining violations including student-athletes receiving impermissible assistance from tutors and mentors, the university failing to comply with its own written drug policy and a lack of institutional control. Sanctions handed down on the university included a vacation of men’s basketball and football wins, and a nine-game suspension for men’s basketball head coach Jim Boeheim.

It was announced in November 2012 that SU would host the East Regional and Worlock said it would have been too close to the date of the event to even have a conversation about changing the location. He added that the sanctions won’t play a role in the decision of awarding a regional to SU, if the university were to want to host one in the future.

Worlock said four of the main criteria for selecting a regional site include finding a venue that has enough seating, appropriate air service, good attendance and full-service hotels. He added that the NCAA tries “to spread it around” but also gives more consideration to a venue that has successfully hosted a regional before, such as SU.



The Carrier Dome holds more than enough people, Worlock said, and Syracuse meets all the other criteria.

The university has hosted a regional six times, with the most recent coming in 2010. In 2002 and 2005 the winners of the Syracuse regional won the National Championship. The winners of the Syracuse regional are a combined 5-4 in the Final Four and National Championship Game.





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