In college basketball, home court advantage is a pretty big deal. That's what makes the tournament so great, because everyone plays on a neutral court. That might not be the case this year. I'm sure everyone in Chapel Hill and Durham have been aware of this for some time now, but you won't hear about it nationally until the conference tournament week. (Unless this post goes national, one can dream) It appears that Duke and UNC are in a fight for a number 1 seed and home court throughout the tournament. Maybe, I'm jumping the gun here a little bit, but it's definitely not unrealistic.

Sure the rivalry between Duke and North Carolina is big, however, for these two teams, getting the number one seed has some additional importance this year. Raleigh is hosting 1st and 2nd round games. A quick check on Mapquest shows that is approximately 30 miles away from both schools. With the new seeding format, they will both probably end up there.

That is not near as important as the regional final, which is being hosted in Charlotte. Obviously, the team that doesn't get a number one seed will end up in another regional. Therefore, if Duke or UNC runs the table and ends up a number one seed, they will not have to travel more than 2 hours to play any of the four games required to get to the Final Four. So keep an eye out on these two teams, especially in the ACC tournament. We could be looking at a guaranteed final four slot for one of them.

So when you're watching Dickie V gush on about the pagentry of this rivalry on Wed night, you'll know what's really going on. Do you think that Coach K and Roy Williams don't know what's at stake? It should be fun to watch.