Reliant Stadium - March Madness 2008 - March Madness

The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single elimination tournament held each spring featuring 65 college basketball teams in the United States. Colloquially known as March Madness (as the tournament takes place mainly during the month of March) or the Big Dance (as opposed to the now smaller and less prestigious NIT), the tournament takes place over 3 weeks at sites across the United States, and the national semifinals (the Final Four) have become one of the nation's most prominent sporting events.
Since its 1939 inception (a brainchild of Phog Allen at the University of Kansas), it has built a legacy that includes dynasty teams and dramatic underdog stories. In recent years, friendly wagering on the event has become something of a national pastime, spawning countless "office pools" that attract expert fans and novices alike. All games of the tournament are broadcast on the CBS broadcast television network in the United States, except for the Opening Round game (or "play-in game" as it has been called), which aired on TNN in 2001, and ESPN since 2002.

The tournament bracket is made up of conference tournament champions from each Division I conference, which receive automatic bids. The remaining slots are at-large berths, with teams chosen by an NCAA selection committee. The selection process and tournament seedings are based on several factors, including team rankings, win-loss records and RPI data.
Two low-seeded teams (typically teams with poor records that qualified by winning their conference tournament championships) play the "opening round" game to determine which will advance into the first round of the tournament, with the winner advancing to play the top seed in one of the four regions. The opening Round game was added in 2001 and has been played in University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio each subsequent year. The opening round is considered part of the tournament and is often referred to as a "play-in" game.

Reliant Stadium is a football stadium in Houston, Texas. It is the home of the NFL's Houston Texans and is host to many international soccer matches for the USA National Soccer Team. The stadium also served as the host facility for Super Bowl XXXVIII on February 1, 2004. College Football's Texas Bowl is hosted at the stadium yearly, and it will additionally play host to the 2007 Season's East-West Shrine Game. In addition to football, the stadium hosts the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo for three weeks in February and March each year.

The seating capacity of the stadium is 71,500. It was the first stadium in the NFL to have a retractable roof, one of two (as of the 2007 NFL season) with a retractable roof. The other is University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, home of the Arizona Cardinals. Two stadiums currently under construction will have retractable roofs: Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in 2008, and the Dallas Cowboys New Stadium in Arlington, Texas in 2009. HOK Sports Architects and Uni-Systems (Mechanization Consultants) worked to establish this design and mechanization of Reliant Stadium, employing the fundamentals of Kinetic Architecture.

The stadium is scheduled to host the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament several times in the future, including the 2008 South Regional Finals, the 2010 South Regional Finals, and the 2011 Final Four.

Reliant Stadium is part a collection of venues (including the Astrodome), which are collectively called, Reliant Park. The stadium was designed and built for two major tenants, the Houston Texans and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The entire complex is named for Reliant Energy under a 32-year, $300 million naming rights deal in 2000.

On Sunday, March 16, the 65-team bracket for the 2008 NCAA� Division I Men's Basketball Championship� will be announced at 5pm CST on CBS.
Tune in to all the 2008 Championship action on CBS beginning Thursday, March 20. The Opening Round game will be broadcast live on ESPN on Tuesday, March 18.
Game times will be confirmed and announced no later than 3:30pm on Monday afternoon, March 17 on.................................................. www.NCAAsports.com.

March 18, 2008
UD Arena
Dayton, Ohio
Host: University of Dayton
UD Arena Concierge

March 20 and 22, 2008
Honda Center
Anaheim, California
Host: Big West Conference
Honda Center Concierge

Pepsi Center
Denver, Colorado
Hosts: Colorado State University
Pepsi Center Concierge

Qwest Center Omaha
Omaha, Nebraska
Hosts: Creighton University
Qwest Center Omaha Concierge

Verizon Center
Washington, D.C.
Host: Georgetown University
Verizon Center Concierge

March 21 and 23, 2008
BJCC Arena
Birmingham, Alabama
Host: Southeastern Conference
BJCC Arena Concierge

Alltel Arena
Little Rock, Arkansas
Host: University of Arkansas
Alltel Arena Concierge

RBC Center
Raleigh, North Carolina
Host: North Carolina State University
RBC Center Concierge

St. Pete Times Forum
Tampa, Florida
Host: University of South Florida
St Pete Times Forum Concierge

March 27 and 29, 2008

East Regional
Charlotte Bobcats Arena
Charlotte, North Carolina
Host: University of North Carolina
Charlotte Arena Concierge

West Regional
US Airways Center
Phoenix, Arizona
Host: Arizona State University
US Airways Center Concierge

March 28 and 30, 2008

Midwest Regional
Ford Field
Detroit, Michigan
Host: University of Detroit Mercy
Ford Field Concierge

South Regional
Reliant Stadium
Houston, Texas
Host: University of Houston and Rice
Reliant Stadium Concierge

Final Four: April 5 and 7, 2008
Alamodome
San Antonio, Texas
Host: Univ. of Texas-San Antonio
Alamodome Concierge

College Football's Texas Bowl and East-West Shrine Game are annually hosted at the stadium. The stadium hosted the Houston Bowl prior to the Texas Bowl's inception and also hosted the 2002 and 2005 Big 12 Conference Championship games. The University of Houston, Rice University, and Texas Southern University each have played selected home games at Reliant Stadium.

The first-ever Texas Bowl in December 2006 featured a game between Rutgers University and Kansas State University. The final score, 37-10 (Rutgers).