First Four complicates attending tournament for WKU students

Kendrick Bryan wanted to hand out NCAA Tournament tickets to Western Kentucky students by the bunch. He wanted to send them to Dayton, Ohio, in buses. He wanted to provide food when they arrived.

But WKU, which claimed the Sun Belt Conference's automatic bid by winning four games in four days at its conference tournament last week, was selected to a First Four game between fellow 16 seed Mississippi Valley State.

Game time is just 48 hours after the NCAA announced the Hilltoppers' destination — not long enough for Bryan, the executive vice president in WKU's Student Government Association, to pull his plan together.

"We tried to make something happen, but it's the turnaround," Bryan said. "If we played Thursday, I think we could have pulled it off."

Instead of some students receiving complimentary tickets through SGA's discretionary fund, they'll have to pay at least face value to get into the 13,435-seat University of Dayton Arena, which has a history of hosting the NCAA Tournament's play-in games.

"In a perfect world, what SGA had in mind was good," said WKU ticket manager Matt Morrison. "We would get the tickets in, SGA would buy them and hand them out here on campus. But the problem becomes that we can't get the tickets on time for them to hand out on campus."

WKU's time crunch is an issue facing first round tournament participants every year and one that's grown recently.

Though play-in games were historically between 16 seeds vying to advance to a first-round matchup against a No. 1 seed, the First Four has added games to determine a 12 and 14 seed. Added in 2011, the First Four is played on Tuesday and Wednesday, is treated as the tournament's first round and includes eight teams.

So while most of the NCAA Tournament field has until Thursday or Friday to figure out how to get students to games, part of WKU's staff had already left for Dayton on Sunday night. The rest left Monday morning.

"That makes things hard on us to accommodate everyone, which we would like to do," Morrison said.

WKU's pre-registration for tickets gave priority to Hilltopper Athletic Foundation members — those who belong to the university's athletics fundraising organization.

Sophomore Joey Gorman said he would have paid whatever it takes to attend WKU's first NCAA Tournament game since 2009. But because his father is a member, he's more likely to receive a ticket at face value.

"I know a lot of students don't have that luxury," Gorman said. "A lot of the people I talk to want to go. They just don't know how to get the tickets or have the ability to."

Bryan said he'd already bought a $90 ticket though eBay. Others are available online through Ticketmaster.com, just not necessarily in WKU's section.

Schools with time, such as the University of Kentucky, are hosting ticket lotteries. The Wildcats play the winner of the WKU-Mississippi Valley State game on Thursday.

Bryan explained that the NCAA Tournament is a university showcase. It's one WKU students can be a part of — and thanks to logistics — for a price.

"It's very important to have a student presence at those events," Bryan said. "Regarding marketing, it's the best visual to have a strong student base at that tournament because it shows athletics can be a vital part of the university experience."

Jonathan Lintner is a Spring 2012 Paste BN Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about him here.

This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.