Lilly Donahue | Indiana University
On Selection Sunday IU basketball was, to no one’s surprise, selected to play in the NIT. As a reward for beating two NCAA tourney #1 seeds, the Hoosiers were given a 3 seed in the tournament, which also gives them the right to host their opening game against Georgie Tech. But, IU, in what I can only assume was an attempt to further piss of their fan base, elected to not host. Yep, you read the right. A team whose home court advantage propelled them to a win over UNC decided that such an advantage wouldn’t be needed in the NIT, despite this being an opportunity for IU fans to see the Hoosiers play at home one last time this season. The athletic department’s reason for this bonehead move, you might ask? They were worried that attendance would be low because IU students, like myself, are off this week for spring break. Now, let me tell you some reasons why this move is dumb as hell:
- People other than students live in Bloomington! The population of the city is around 82,000 people, around 40,000 of whom are students. If we whip out our handy-dandy calculators, we can find that if literally zero students attended, there’d still be 40k potential people in attendance. Assembly Hall only holds 17,000 people! According to IU Athletics, 2+2=3, because they obviously don’t care for basic math.
- People other than Bloomington residents attend IU games! People from all around the state flood Assembly Hall to watch IU basketball play, even when they’re bad. Even if the entire city of Bloomington was on vacation (spoiler alert: they aren’t), fans would still come out to watch IU play in a tournament atmosphere.
- Some fans cannot afford to attend regular games, but could’ve gone to this one. I don’t disagree that many IU students will be gone, and that this might leave open some seats. What IU could easily do is open up the student section seats to other fans, possibly at a limited rate, so that fans who usually can’t afford tickets can attend!
- Home court advantage is proven to help teams win. Even if less fans showed up than usual, the atmosphere would still be dominated by IU fans, and would still give the Hoosiers home court advantage. By allowing this game to be played in Atlanta, the IU athletic department is guaranteeing that IUBB will be at a disadvantage from the start.
This move is one of the dumbest things I’ve seen IU Athletics do in recent memory. The fans are pissed, and rightly so.