Anybody hear anything about us hosting a regional...I hope because if we dont' its going to be tough to make to the Sweet Sixteen.

The tourney selections will be announced on Thursday. At that time, they'll announce the regional hosts. We'll just have to wait it out until then to find out.

A&M is right on the bubble of hosting. The 'Horns were 15, the Ags were 17 before their match, so both teams are close hosting. What the win over Texas and loss to Baylor will do for our ranking -- and our chances to host a regional -- I don't know.

Updated rankings that I've seen (these won't be official until tomorrow of course) have us jumping over Duke...up to the #16 spot with t.u. remaining at #15. It'll be close if we do get a regional. My guess is Alabama or Arkansas will come here as the #2 seed, if we host one.

I bet we get one.

imo we should've jumped texas, but we should still get one at 16. announce them thursday at 5:30 cst i believe...

Here is the way I understand this regional stuff...the NCAA committee, which Cass is on, will seed teams 1 thru 16. These team are not necessarily the team currently ranked 1 thru 16. A&M has wins over a few teams ranked higher than them, so the possibility exists that A&M could be one of the 16 seeded teams. Remember last year...we were ranked 5th or 6th, but went into the tournament as the 4th seed. There is a chance we could host, but it is very slim.

Also, since 9/11, the NCAA has regionalized it's tournaments...and it will happen again with tennis. What this means is that the NCAA committee will seed the teams 1 thru 16 ONLY and than send teams in the same region to the closest site. Last year, seeds were 1-16, 17-32, 33-48, 49-64. The higher the seed, the lower seeded team you played. As the 4th seed last year, A&M got teams seeded 28th, 44th and 60th...or something like that. This year however, you could see a regional with Baylor, A&M, Rice and SMU....or Texas, Baylor, A&M and someother Texas or Louisiana school. Baylor is guaranteed a regional and Texas is on the bubble with us....however, the committee could award only one Texas regional, which would be in Waco, and send us, Texas and SMU or Rice there.

The regionalization of the tournament could really hurt the National Championships at A&M if all the Texas schools get bunched up and knock each other out. For the tournament to be a success, A&M doen't have to make the championships, but at least one or more Texas schools need to. This may be difficult to do if only one or 2 regionals are awarded here in Texas.

For one thing, they will never send 3 schools from the Big 12 to the same regional. They have a rule stating that you will not play someone from your conference for the first round. Also, no way they send us to Baylor...they're going to give us consideration as the hosting school, which means they're not going to send us (the #16 ranked team right now) to the #4 ranked team's regional. I think you're going to see a lot of Texas schools versus SEC schools in the regionals, hence my prediction of Alabama or Arkansas. You're going to see some traveling...there's nothing they can do about that. You look and see 5 California schools in the top 12 and figure at the very least, 4 of those schools will host. Well there's not that many quality #2 seeds out there on the West Coast...someone's going to have to fly out there.

Aggiedoc, I think Sherlock is right about this one. The NCAA rulings after 9/11 will be a consideration for hosting sites. Now that they've made other sports use geographic considerations for regionals, it's hard to let tennis off the hook -- even if it hurts nationals. I heard that Coach Cass was worried about this. Even though he is on the committee, he has to play by the rules handed down from the NCAA. I'm sure he'll try to work it out, but it might not work out like A&M wants.

[This message has been edited by BBRex (edited 5/2/2002).]

With the polls saying we should be a top 16 seed and us hosting the championships, I believe that we will see the first two rounds at A&M. The championships would have a greater chance of being successful with A&M involved. Of course hosting rounds 1 and 2 increases the odds that we will be there. It is not like the NCAA would be cheating another school if A&M hosts, we deserve to host and the championships being at A&M should only help our cause.

We should all know shortly. I believe the announcement should be around 5:30 or so. Lets hope it works out for all the Texas schools.

BBRex,

You might see two Big 12 schools at the same regional, but definitely not 3...there is a stated rule saying that you will not play another member of your conference in the first round. While we may see two Big 12 schools at the same regional, I highly doubt it will be us at Baylor. We are ranked 16 right now and have beaten 3 schools ahead of us (#12 Florida, #13 Auburn, and #15 t.u.) plus a win over #17 Duke. You're also most likely going to see some consideration shown our way given the fact that we are hosting the NCAA's this year too. All things considered, I don't see us getting screwed into having to travel to waco to play #4 baylor in a regional and I doubt they would pick t.u. to host a regional over us and send us there.

Aggiedoc, I don't think all three Big 12 schools will be at one regional, but if there are two regionals in Texas and they send all the Texas-area schools to one of the two, the end result won't be much better. I think A&M really needs to have at least three Texas schools in the NCAAs to have the atmosphere they want. I don't know how many other school travel well for tennis.

Well we got a regional...very interesting regionals...Baylor didn't get a regional (they're the #1 seed at Harvard) and t.u. did get one. We got one hell of a difficult round of 16 though (defending champ Georgia).