When the selection, seeding and bracketing of this year's Division I Championships come out, you can bet a significant discussion will center on "neutral sites," the lack of them and how the tournament is moving (slowly) towards them, the unfair advantage certain teams gets, etc. The main argument against neutral sites is that the women's fan base won't support them. Yet.

Which begs the question -- if the tournament is about matching up the best teams, do we care if there are fans in the stands? Why? For the look on TV? For the revenue they generate? For the energy (and witness) they offer the players?

Consider last week's decision by the Missouri Valley Conference: they'll be moving their post-season tournament to a neutral site in 2008. Conference schools have hosted the tournament, often guaranteeing good attendance and a nice bit of change.

Patty Viverito, senior associate commissioner for the Valley, admitted while making Tuesday's announcement that it will take years to build the tournament in the St. Louis area, much like it did with the men's when it started at Kiel Auditorium in 1991.

But in the interest of legitimizing the postseason tournament —and the conference —a move was necessary.