Syracuse won its first national championship in three tries under 27th-year head coach Jim Boeheim, who would ultimately retire after the 2022–2023 season.

As a solution, the selection committee had a plan to switch BYU, the 12 seed in the Friday-Sunday South regional, with the team that reached the Sweet 16 in the Thursday-Saturday Midwest regional (either Wisconsin, Weber State, Dayton, or Tulsa) should the Cougars advance to the Sweet 16.

However, because of the start of the Iraq War the night before, the afternoon games on Thursday and Friday were moved to ESPN while retaining CBS graphics and production.

Thursday and Friday night's games were shown on CBS, albeit with frequent news updates.

To make up for lost advertising revenue, an additional time slot was opened the following Sunday evening for more CBS telecasts.