Doyel: Why Indy should host the Final Four every year

The Final Four is good in other cities. It's good in Minneapolis, cold but accommodating, with that pedestrian tunnel system downtown. It's good in New Orleans, where the French Quarter is always lively. It's good in Atlanta, good – maybe even great – in San Antonio.

But it's best in Indianapolis.

So why not put it here permanently?

Far as I know, the NCAA is not a charitable operation. It seeks goodwill, and moving the Final Four around the country cultivates that, but putting the Final Four anywhere but the best possible city – best for teams, coaches, fans, media – seems like a charitable donation to other cities and a lost opportunity not just to our city, but to everyone involved.

A Final Four in New Orleans is fun if smelly, the French Quarter having an erstwhile odor of vomit. I've been to Final Fours in New Orleans, watching people get drunk on Friday and Sunday night, watching them walk a mile-and-a-half to the Superdome on Saturday and Monday, and thought: Nice here. Too bad we're not in Indianapolis.

A Final Four in Atlanta is fine — if congested — downtown Atlanta having more than 50,000 college students and more than twice as many full-time workers. That's a lot of traffic in a small area, so you're walking a mile or more from most hotels to the Georgia Dome. I've been to Final Fours in Atlanta and thought: Nice here. Too bad we're not in Indianapolis.

The NCAA doesn't put this event in a bad spot – except last year in greater Dallas, an area so enormous that it swallowed the Final Four whole, leaving nary a trace outside the arena – but there's only one great spot. Our spot. Does that make me a homer? I don't know. Homer, dispenser of truth, you tell me. Lots of cities are fine Final Four hosts, but only one city, our city, is best. Truth is truth, and others were saying the same truth this week. Here's a partial list:

Dick Vitale. Bill Walton. Jim Nantz. Mike Krzyzewski. Tom Izzo.

Are they homers too?

Coach K went out of his way to laud Indianapolis. Coaches are always gracious when asked about the host city, but what Coach K did was different. He wasn't asked about Indianapolis – he just talked about us anyway, Friday before Duke played Michigan State in a semifinal and again Monday after the Blue Devils beat Wisconsin 68-63. On Friday he said, "Indianapolis puts it on the best," and sitting next to him, Spartans coach Tom Izzo nodded in agreement.

On Monday night after winning his fifth NCAA title, Krzyzewski was asked about entering 10-time UCLA champion John Wooden's class. Coach K turned that question into a sonnet to Indianapolis:

"Whenever you mention Coach Wooden, he's separate from everybody. In some respects, so is Indianapolis," Coach K said. "I don't know if you realize just how good everyone is here. All the hosts, the volunteers, the police, everyone. They're unbelievable. ... When you walk out on the court as a player or coach and you see this arena, there's something here that's magical. I don't know what it is, but it's here."

It should be here every year, and don't tell me the NCAA doesn't do that – it does. The College World Series has been in Omaha since 1950, with an agreement to be there through 2035. One city, 85 consecutive years. With the exception of 1996 when it was held in the Olympic softball stadium near Atlanta, the Women's College World Series has been in Oklahoma City every year since 1990, with an agreement between the NCAA and Oklahoma City to keep it there through 2020, and possibly through 2035. The outdoor track and field championships rotated among a handful of cities every five or so years, including Eugene, Ore., until 2013 when the NCAA signed a deal with Eugene for every year through 2021.

There is precedent for the NCAA to put a championship in one city – and a growing consensus that the best city for the Final Four is ours. It might never happen, and ESPN's Dick Vitale will explain why, but not without saying why Indy would be the only choice for a permanent home.

"It's the perfect place," Vitale said before the title game Monday, after he had spent several hours visiting patients at Riley Hospital for Children. "It won't happen because they want to share the event with different cities, but I can see holding it here every year because nobody does it this good."

Former Brownsburg High basketball player Mark Titus wrote this week for ESPN.com:

"If America were rebuilt from scratch and the government gave the NCAA a chunk of land and a bunch of money to construct a city whose only purpose would be to host the Final Four, the result would be Indianapolis."

CBS announcer Jim Nantz has called 25 Final Fours, six in Indy, and told the Star's David Woods it should return here at least every three years because "the Final Four feels different here. … It unites the event and all the people around it. You don't have that everywhere."

You don't. Not even San Antonio, which does the event so very well, possesses the Final Four feel of Indianapolis. When the Final Four comes here, everything else ceases to exist. Unlike San Antonio, New Orleans, even Atlanta, tourists are here for one reason only. And the genius, the secret, behind our Final Four isn't merely our compact downtown – though Hall of Famer Bill Walton told me Monday, "the concentration of Indy is why it's so special" – but the volunteers. Other cities, even tourist destinations like San Antonio and New Orleans, begrudge at times the congestion. Here for the Final Four, we welcome it. We embrace it. I've been to every Final Four since 1998, and I'm telling you: There's no place, no people, like ours.

The NCAA will continue to move the event around the country, which is great for those cities. But it's a shame for the teams and fans who get just one crack at a Final Four – and missed out on the city that does it best.

Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/gregg.doyel