The entire Big Dance will take place under one metaphorical roof.
The NCAA announced Monday it has entered negotiations to move the entire 2021 NCAA Tournament to the state of Indiana.
"In recent weeks, the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee has engaged in a thorough contingency planning process to determine the most effective way to conduct a safe and healthy March Madness for all participants for the 2021 championship," the organization said. "Through these discussions, it became apparent to the committee that conducting the championship at 13 preliminary round sites spread throughout the country would be very difficult to execute in the current pandemic environment. The committee has decided the championship should be held in a single geographic area to enhance the safety and well-being of the event.
"As a result, NCAA staff are in preliminary talks with the State of Indiana and the city of Indianapolis to potentially host the 68-team tournament around the metropolitan area during the coordinated dates in March and April."
Indiana was chosen because Indianapolis was the pre-determined host of the 2021 Final Four.
The tournament is the NCAA's golden goose and, after canceling the entire 2020 event, the organization moved to make double damn sure that goose laid eggs in 2021.
Given the circumstances, the Men's Basketball Committee determined having 68 teams fly throughout the country to one site, staying for four days, flying home, flying to another site for four days, flying home again, then flying to a third location for four-to-six days was not the best course of action amid a global pandemic.
Which all begs the question: What is the College Football Playoff waiting for?
The 2020 season was to be one of those one-in-every-three years where the CFP made sense: Jan. 1 semifinals at the Rose and Sugar bowls, followed by a Jan. 11 championship game in Miami.
A wonderful plan on paper, a logistical nightmare in a pandemic.
Painful as it would be, the safest play -- I'm talking both of the athletes' physical health and the sport's financial health -- would be to play all three Playoff games in the same location, preferably with at least a week of lead time before the semifinals.
As it stands, had Trevor Lawrence popped a positive test on Dec. 31 instead of Oct. 29, he'd miss the entire Playoff.
There's no way to completely eliminate risk that such a fate isn't awaiting Ohio State's Justin Fields, Alabama's Mac Jones or another player (or coach) of similar consequence. If we've learned anything in 2020, it's that you can't isolate any endeavor from the society in which it exists -- but a bubble gives you the best shot.
In keeping the Playoff outside of a bubble and inside society at large, the sports organizers place the entire operation -- and the $470+ million ESPN pays to air those three games -- at risk.