2013 East Regionals At Washington DC's Verizon Center, Not Carrier Dome

The NCAA pulled a bit of a shocker today, announcing that the Verizon Center, home of the Georgetown Hoyas (and Syracuse Orange when they're in town) will host the 2013 NCAA Tournament East Regional.

The Verizon Center was not amongst the list of possible sites that have been bandied about publicly. They included Madison Square Garden, Barclays Arena in Brooklyn and the Carrier Dome.

While a Regional in Syracuse would have been nice for the locals, I'm more than glad to see it being played elsewhere as a Syracuse fan. If the Regionals were in the Dome, Syracuse would be unable to play there, meaning that even if they ended up getting a top seed again, they' be shipped off to another Regional.

Plus, it means that if Georgetown (somehow) has an amazing season, they can't play in the East Regional. So that's nice.

Now, it might end up being inconsequential. If the Orange end up a 3-4-5 seed this season, they probably won't have any control of where they go. But it's nice to know that the possibility exists. The ideal assignment for the Orange in the 2013 NCAA Tournament is now an opening weekend in Philadelphia before a regional appearance in D.C. It would be like a grand finale tour of Big East locations before heading to Atlanta for the Final Four.

Let's do that.