While Las Vegas is a popular locale for NCAA basketball tournaments and other events, the NCAA won’t allow it to host an NCAA regional tournament, but that might change.
NCAA President Mark Emmert in March attended NCAA conference tournaments held at Las Vegas venues and recently told a gathering of NCAA officials that it might be time to rethink its partial ban on Las Vegas events.
“I think the membership is trying to figure out what’s the right way to approach this issue,” Emmert told attendees at the recent Intercollegiate Athlete Forum in New York, according to ESPN.com.
Emmert said the current system is hypocritical at times, and the January 14-16 NCAA Convention in San Antonio might the best place to discuss new regulations that might bring an NCAA regional basketball tournament to Las Vegas.
Las Vegas hosts several annual holiday and conference basketball tournaments, including holiday tournaments in November and December and the PAC-12, Mountain West, and Western Athletic Conference men’s basketball tournaments each spring.
But the NCAA in 2009 enacted a ban against its annual men’s and women’s tournaments being held in Las Vegas, which hasn’t hosted an NCAA regional event since the 1991 women’s basketball tournament.
In 2014, UNLV applied to host an NCAA men’s baseball regional, but the NCAA denied the request, saying it is important for the integrity of the game to prevent them from being held in Las Vegas.
