First, I'm very glad they submitted a bid. This is what big time programs should be doing, and it's more proof to me that Julie gets it. (By the way, not a lot of these bids have leaked out so far, which is kind of interesting.)
What they're doing is kind of confusing. Here's how I understand it:
1. This year the tournament is going back to 16 hosts, picked at the time the tournament is seeded.
2. Unlike what they did back in the day (say, 2001, the last time RU hosted under the old, old system), they require teams to bid in advance if they want to host. In theory, the reason for this is so that the NCAA and ESPN don't have to scurry around during the last couple of days before the bracket is announced to figure out if team can host. A team that did not bid by the deadline cannot host. Also, bids are required to meet certain announced minimum standards and if a bid does not meet those standards it will not be accepted. (More on this below.)
3. When they set the bracket, they will assign host sites to all of the teams with 1-4 seeds that also submitted bids. If a 1-4 seed did not bid, then the host site will be assigned to the next team in the seeding that did bid. So, for instance, we know that Louisville did not bid because the Cardinals are hosting the men's tournament. If they get a 3 seed, the committee will go to the 6 seed if it bid, then the 11 seed if it bid, then the 14 seed if it bid. In other words, you still can host if you don't get a 1-4 seed, but it depends on what else happens in your pod.
4. I don't know what the committee plans to do if it doesn't have a host for a particular pod. I can think of two likely scenarios: (a) It swaps out a team from another pod that did bid but won't be hosting (because a higher seed in that pod also bid); or (b) it gives the teams in the pod the opportunity to bid late. Personally, I'm betting on (a), and am wondering if some teams will be bumped up or down in the seeding to match up pods and host sites. I have no idea what they'll do if they somehow end up with an orphan pod; maybe they have a handy list of neutral sites available, or will be lucky enough to have bids from teams that don't make the tournament.
I also have an opinion on the minimum standards for bids. I've seen some people say that the committee actually will favor the most financially beneficial bids. I don't think that's true, but I do think that it's possible the committee will decide that a not-quite-up-to-snuff bid is okay, or will let a school that submitted a bid like that fix it before the sites are announced.
Oh, one other thing - I'd heard earlier that Arizona State couldn't bid because they were hosting the Pac-12 gymnastics championships. The championships were moved to Utah (which has exactly 0 chance of hosting), so ASU will be able host, and I expect that they will be hosting.