At Ford Field, it'll be NCAA basketball from the 50-yard line

The enormity of tomorrow's national semifinal basketball games, which includes Villanova against North Carolina, is undeniable.

The size of the stadium in which the games are being played is also a hot topic of conversation. Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions, is this year's host. No surprise there, as domed stadiums have become the norm for Final Four weekend. But what is different is the number of people who will watch live, because of the placement of the court.

In years past, the court inside the domes would be placed toward one end zone, and about 40,000 spectators would view the game. This year, CBS and the NCAA decided the court at Ford Field would be placed in the middle of the football field, so that the audience could grow to the dome's capacity, in this case close to 70,000.

In a conference call this week, CBS Sports analyst Clark Kellogg, who will call his first Final Four with play-by-play man Jim Nantz, wasn't sure how the new setting would sit with those in attendance.

"In general, larger facilities tend to lose intimacy," said Kellogg, who is replacing Billy Packer. "I'm anxious to see how it's going to be different. Domes are where the Final Four has been played since 1997. I'm looking forward to it."

Added Nantz: "It's going to look different than any other Final Four, with the court square right there on the football field. It's going to have such a big feel. It will have a Super Bowl look to it, but it's a basketball game out there in the middle of the field."

That environment won't affect those of us sitting in front of our television, watching 'Nova try to collect its second national title. But the coverage by the network will be a bit different, said Bob Fishman, who will be lead director for this weekend's coverage for the 28th year.

"We will have some different things this year, including a super slo-mo camera on the court," he said. "There is a large out-of-bounds area, which we will have covered, and we'll be able to show super slo-mo replays, which is a new wrinkle. We'll have the robotic cameras as we always do, but we'll be adding two to the far side of the court, looking at the benches, seeing the antics of the coaches."