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Just a few days after lamenting the fact that the Northeast won't have an NCAA Tournament quarterfinals site in 2013, the NCAA unleashed great news for people with cars and a fear of flying located between Boston and Baltimore: The 2014 NCAA Tournament quarterfinals are going to smash themsevles into your face (and local Chambers of Commerce).
As announced today, the NCAA is bringing its men's quarterfinals action to Delaware Stadium and Shuart Stadium. This will be the eighth time that Hofstra hosts a quarterfinals double header, previously hosting in 1997-1999, 2001-2002, 2009, and 2011. Interestingly, in all but one year that Hofstra has hosted the event -- 1999 -- the national champion came out of the region. (Princeton has been the bell cow for the region, winning three titles after doing time in Hempstead.) Delaware has never hosted a quarterfinals in the current format, but has twice hosted Championship Weekend -- in 1984 and 1986 (the first time that Championship Weekend was actually a weekend). The 2014 Championship Weekend will be held at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, mostly because crabs are delicious and see ya later, belt.
It's not the most geographically diverse NCAA Tournament -- save the composition of first round campus sites -- but it does cover the entirety of the game's East Coast heart. From Boston, through Central New York, down through the New York metro area, the I-95 corridor through New Jersey and Philadelphia, and finally terminating in Baltimore, lacrosse fans will have the opportunity to see tons of great lacrosse within car ride distances over three weekends in May. Newark and Hempstead don't have the pizzazz of a Lucas Oil Stadium or PPL Park, but these are solid locations that should draw fairly well for local fans that were possibly shut out of watching quarterfinals double headers in 2013 due to the site locations.
What do you knuckleheads think? Like the sites? Excited to visit the screen door factory in Delaware? The comments are yours.