Tampa Bay and the St. Pete Times Forum have moved a step closer to winning a bid to host the SEC men's basketball tournament, league officials said Wednesday.
SEC athletic directors pared a list of potential sites for the 2009-12 tournaments from six to four: Tampa Bay, Atlanta, New Orleans and Nashville. They eliminated Little Rock, Ark., and Birmingham, Ala.
"We could not be more flattered or excited to be continuing on in the process," Tampa Bay Sports Commission executive director Rob Higgins said. "The SEC basketball tournament is a world-class event that we would love the opportunity to host."
SEC spokesman Charles Bloom said the league office will enter into negotiations with the remaining four sites, a standard practice, and then make its recommendations to the athletic directors for a vote.
If the SEC follows its recent pattern of wanting to keep the tournament in Atlanta twice every four years (it will be there in 2007-08), then that would leave two spots in this cycle for the other three cities.
That would be reduced to just one shot between two if the SEC also were to select New Orleans, which has been a semi-regular destination. Tampa Bay lost out on its previous bid for this tournament to Nashville, which was named the 2006 site in the last cycle.
FSU announces schedule
The Florida State men's team will play Duke, North Carolina State, Maryland and ACC newcomer Virginia Tech just once in 2004-05, one of the scheduling vagaries of an 11-team league that is still playing 16 conference games.
The good news for the Seminoles is that the Blue Devils, a national semifinalist last season whom they have beaten two of the last three times at home, go to Tallahassee on Jan. 22. Virginia Tech, led by former USF coach Seth Greenberg, is in town Jan. 8.
They will play the traditional home-and-home with the other six ACC teams, including Miami (on the road Jan. 15 and at home on Feb. 22). The biggest non-conference game is at home against Florida on Jan. 2. FSU opens against visiting Texas Southern on Nov. 19.
