NCAA, colleges looking for ways to pinch pennies

By JOSEPH WHITE

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — When members of the NCAA selection committee are setting up those brackets for the men's basketball tournament, they'll be able to plug in a school's name and first-round site into a software program and get a quick idea as to how much it will cost for the school to make the trip.

If a school in the NCAA baseball tournament find itself 375 miles away from its regional site, it can take the bus instead of fly.

And, for those athletes who fly to an NCAA championship event, forget about taking as many bags as you want. The limit is now two.

The San Jose State football coach says he'll avoid hotels when possible on recruiting trips. The athletics director at George Washington is wondering whether it's time to turn out the gym lights earlier each night to save on electricity and heating bills.

Like the rest of the country, college sports is in economic meltdown mode, and not even a grand locale for the NCAA's annual convention — along the Potomac River just south of Washington, D.C. — can mask the belt-tightening that is under way.

"It's going to affect travel," George Washington AD Jack Kvancz said. "It's going to affect lodging. It's going to affect all those things that you would obviously think it's going to effect. You're going to see schedules affected."

NCAA, colleges looking for ways to pinch pennies....