April Madness: Indianapolis hosts yet another men's Final Four. A free concert by John Mellencamp.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: AROUND INDIANA

MYLES BRAND CONSIDERS himself a "naturalized Hoosier," having moved here in 1994 when he became president of Indiana University. But he's been around Indiana long enough to know what's going to go over well here.

"A free concert by John Mellencamp amid the Final Four? Help me, but I don't know of anything better," says Brand, now president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The NCAA men's basketball Final Four rolls into Indianapolis yet again the first weekend in April. Yes, there are the basketball games April 1 and 3, but the weekend schedule is packed with related events as well, including a free, all-day concert on Saturday the 2nd, headlined by Hoosier rocker Mellencamp and expected to draw as many as 100,000 people downtown.

Outside of auto racing, the men's basketball tournament is arguably the most-hyped sporting event on the calendar between the Super Bowl and the World Series, so hot that even the term "NCAA March Madness" is trademarked. And the men's Final Four will be back again in four years. It previously was held in Indianapolis in 1980, 1991, 1997 and 2000, and earlier-round games happen here regularly. The women's Final Four, held in Indianapolis last year, will return in 2011.

It's all part of a three-decade commitment made by the Indianapolis-based NCAA, says Brand. In most five-year spans over that time frame, Indianapolis is supposed to host one men's Final Four, one women's Final Four, a men's regional basketball championship, a women's regional basketball championship and an NCAA annual convention--on average, one big...