Escape from L.A.

I'll give brownie points to someone who can give me a good reason why the Pac-10 men's basketball tournament is held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Because the idea to me ranks right up there with the invention of the spork. A lot of people see this as the reason why the Huskies will be playing in the city of angels next Thursday: A big city, a major arena holding nearly 19,000 people and the spotlight. Valid reasons, but against almost everything that college hoops stands for. In my mind, which rarely has valid reasoning, here are some thoughts on what should be done about the site of the tournament for the conference of champions. Move the games to Arco Arena in Sacramento, Calif. Many of those same logical reasons for having the tournament in Los Angeles would hold true in Sacramento: A big arena, which would generate revenue, a big city (well, it is the State's capital after all) and some spotlight. But the major difference is that UCLA and USC won't be playing home games in Sacramento; nobody will. Arco Arena will be the neutral court that people had in mind. Each year that the games are played in Staples, UCLA and USC have a clear advantage over the other teams by not having to travel and Bruin and Trojan fans have easier access to come support their teams. This would make sense if either team was the top seed in the tournament, but they're not, and never have been in the short history of the tournament. Thus, they don't merit a home-court game. And here's why Arco Arena makes sense. It will still bring in plenty of fans -- it holds more than 17,000 people -- and Sacramento is probably the most central location for all eight teams. But most importantly, Sacramento gives no team a home court advantage. Geography majors will tell you that Sacramento is nearly an hour and a half to two-hour drive from the Bay Area schools. A central location on a truly neutral court seems like a worthy place to play for a title. Here's option two: rotate the tournament between every campus. So Maples Pavilion hosts the games one year, Hec Edmundson Pavilion the next, and so forth. Seems like a good idea because college games are much more entertaining on hostile courts, but there are some problems with this. First, it won't get the same crowds as Arco or Staples. The campus' gyms simply don't hold the same numbers as the NBA arenas do. So Pac-10 bigwigs will be losing out on some of their precious dollars. The other reason that rotating school's gyms seems like a bad idea is because each year a random team will have a home-court advantage. If this year's tournament were at Maples, Stanford, even as the No.3 seed, will give people problems in the tournament. In this scenario, a potential rematch between the Huskies and Cardinal could occur on the Farm, and we all know what happened there last time. This system just doesn't seem fair. If you want a fair tournament coupled with excitement, here's the way the Pac-10 tournament should be in the future: have home-court games. The higher seed in each game gets the home game. Here's why it works: mid-major conferences do it, so why can't the Pac-10? The stadiums are packed, the fans are wild and really, how often do college kids get to see their team in a playoff game? Also, the higher seed deserves something for being that higher seed. They've gotten that high seed by proving they're good all year, so why do they now need to prove it again on a "neutral" court? If Washington needs to go into Tucson, Ariz., and beat Arizona for the title, then so be it. This system certainly has downfalls in that the games are spread out between campuses, but I would imagine Dawg Pack members are trying to see another home game or two for that matter. So take your pick for the new site(s) of the Pac-10 tournament because as it is now, it needs to get the hell out of Los Angeles.

Escape from L.A.

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