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SAN ANTONIO — As it prepares to bid in the next cycle of men’s NCAA Tournament Final Fours, a St. Louis delegation was among 10 to meet with the NCAA this weekend in San Antonio.
The meetings were to further familiarize contenders with amended bid procedures and to update the NCAA on developments in each city.
The NCAA will pay informal site visits to each city in the next four to five weeks, said Greg Shaheen, vice president of Division I men’s basketball. Formal bids for Final Fours from 2012 to 2016 will be due in early June, with the list of 10 whittled down to the finalists around August.
The competition is expected to be Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Glendale, Ariz., Houston, Indianapolis, Minnesota, New Orleans and San Antonio. One of the bids will go to Indianapolis, home of the NCAA, meaning as many as nine cities could be vying for four bids.
Next year’s Final Four is in Detroit, followed by Indianapolis in 2010 and Houston in 2011.
St. Louis will host the women’s Final Four next year. It last hosted the men’s Final Four in 2005.
St. Louis had hoped to be awarded another Final Four in the current sequence but was left out. That was at least partly because the decision was being made before 2005 and thus before a chance to evaluate the city’s first hosting of the event since 1978.
If the NCAA follows the same form, Detroit and Houston’s chances would seem diminished since neither will have hosted before the decision is made. But in previous interviews with the Post-Dispatch, Shaheen has said that would be only one factor among many considerations.
A SURPRISE GUEST
As Memphis players returned to the locker room just before the national title game Monday at the Alamodome, many shook hands with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who recently had addressed the team.

stltoday.com