NCAA Tournament's No. 1 Overall Seed Will Get to Pick 1st-, 2nd-Round Host Site

The NCAA announced that the top overall seed in the NCAA basketball tournament will now get to pick its first- and second-round host site, according to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports.

"Preferences would be communicated by teams in contention for the overall No. 1 seed far in advance of Selection Sunday in a process to be determined," the NCAA said in a statement, per Norlander.

The selection committee will still assign host cities to the remainder of the field, including the three other No. 1 seeds, giving the top overall seed a significant advantage over every other program in the country.

The top seed will determine its host site but will have no say in which opponents it faces.

The host cities for the opening two rounds for the 2017 tournament are Buffalo, New York; Milwaukee; Orlando, Florida; Salt Lake City; Greensboro, North Carolina; Indianapolis; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Sacramento, California. So, for instance, if Duke was the top overall seed, it could choose to play its opening games in Greensboro, roughly one hour away from Durham, North Carolina.

Likewise, Kansas could take the four-hour trip to Tulsa, or Kentucky could travel just three hours to play in Indianapolis.

The selection committee will still continue to try to place all seeds with regional considerations in mind. The NCAA's "Principle and Procedures for Establishing the Bracket" includes the following guidelines:

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Teams will remain in or as close to their areas of natural interest as possible. A team moved out of its natural area will be placed in the next closest region to the extent possible. If two teams from the same natural region are in contention for the same bracket position, the team ranked higher in the seed list shall remain in its natural region.

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Because the NCAA traditionally gives preference to the top overall seed anyway when establishing where the top seeds will be placed, this change likely won't dramatically alter the selection committee's process, if at all. But it's more reason for the nation's top programs to gun for the top overall seed and secure their most beneficial placement.

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