WATERLOO - Nothing could fully prepare them.

Training manuals don't exist. The volume of work is unprecedented.

"There's nothing out there you can even relate to," said Stephanie Schmidt, who's managing this colossal project.

It's called madness, the month-long quest of NCAA Division I basketball programs for national supremacy, where one game, one shot, one blown call can mean the difference between glory and defeat.

If the tournaments constitute madness, the scene at Short's Travel Management this week can best be described as controlled chaos, where snowstorms, misspelled names and last-minute confirmations complicate an already complex process.

On Sunday, 129 men's and women's basketball teams were assigned their brackets. Like the rest of basketball fans across America, 30 travel agents from Short's were huddled around televisions on Selection Sunday. As each team was announced, Short's sent out a congratulatory e-mail with instructions attached.

Then their madness began.

Within 48 hours, those 129 teams from schools in Orono, Maine, to Stockton, Calif., needed travel accommodations to tournament sites from Seattle to Orlando.

Agents were assigned about nine teams each. Short's had to gather rosters, travel preferences and other information from each team. Automatic bids and tournament shoo-ins were able to submit their paperwork ahead of time.

"We got about half of them before Sunday," company president David LeCompte said. "But some of them didn't get their stuff to us until Tuesday."

With security heightened, the federal Transportation Security Agency needed rosters, with all names spelled correctly, prior to those flights.

By NCAA rule, teams located within 300 miles of their first-round site were assigned charter buses. The remaining 100 teams needed flights.

Commercial flights are the first option but finding space for 75 players, coaches, cheerleaders, musicians and administrators isn't always possible. For those teams, charter flights are booked.

"There are about 20 factors involved in each flight. (Teams) may not get their first choice because we have such a short window."

"The first priority is the team," said one agent. "We try to keep the whole group together, but we can't always."

As in the tournament, victories are celebrated - but just for a moment. The next round always awaits.

"We got all the teams there," said LeCompte. Getting them home will be a more daunting task.

Short's won the right to handle this responsibility. Last year, the NCAA awarded the 58-year-old travel agency a multi-year contract to book travel for all of its NCAA championships, meetings and events. Short's has already handled football playoffs, volleyball tournaments and cross country meets.

This is a whole different ball game

"We started Sunday night working 24 hours straight," LeCompte said. "The last couple of nights we've been here since 1 a.m. or so."

With first-round accommodations made, the pace has slowed a little. Agents are rotating in 10-hours shifts now. During second-round action, agents will be sending 32 teams home, 32 to the Sweet Sixteen round.

The booking room has three televisions tuned to the action. A few unmanned computers are used to monitor games on the Web.

On each wall are lists of teams, tournament sites, airline names and game times. About 15 teams occupied a board labeled "no return options." Those teams, as of that moment, had no way of getting home should they lose.

An adjacent room holds agents handling charter flights.

"They're the most busy right now," LeCompte said.

A large U.S. map hangs on one wall with lines showing all the charter flights. Red lines signify men's games, green lines the women's tournament. Three green lines point to Missoula, Mont., three red lines reach to Seattle.

"Of course, everybody wants a flight here," said Short's CEO Camille Hogan, pointing to San Antonio, site of the men's Final Four.

"It looks more chaotic than it is," she added.

Teams are booked on one-way flights to their tournament sites. After all, it's tough to schedule a return flight for a 75-member entourage when it's unclear when exactly they're coming home.

"The challenging part is finding capacity in the middle of spring break," LeCompte said. "There's not much capacity out there. We're doing what we can to get teams home."

Some preplanning is possible. A 16 seed has never beaten a No. 1 since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. Therefore, agents felt comfortable planning for those underdogs to return home Thursday night. Backup plans are in place in case the impossible happens.

Every game involving charter flights has a win-lose option. The outcome could determine whether a flight is already waiting, or whether Short's has to move a regional jet from Seattle to Denver.

"I'm guessing we're trying to book 51 flights on 30 planes," LeCompte said. "We're trying to move the most teams with the fewest planes. What they won't do is let a plane just sit there for three days."

An airline that a few days ago said it had planes available suddenly couldn't accommodate a return flight.

Like in basketball, communication in this game is key.

"Make sure they get on that flight tonight," an agent says into the phone. "There are no other options. There are no more charters. They're all tied up at this point."

At the same time, another agent is on the phone: "Do you have a 30-passenger jet that could go from Milwaukee to Boise and back Saturday night?"

Another conservation goes like this: "If they lose, this is what they'll take. If they win …

"That one's not available."

When not on the phone, agents are constantly talking with each other.

"Texas Tech over Charlotte."

"Do I need to hold this space for Purdue?"

"How are we getting Maryland home?"

"Does somebody have my Georgia file?"

"Have you heard from anybody about space for the band and cheerleaders?"

The hoops fans among them fight the urge to watch. Several make an exception when the Southern Illinois-Alabama tilt comes down to a final shot with five seconds to play. Minutes after SIU's attempt fails, an agent is on the phone with a carrier, confirming the flight home to Marion, Ill.

It goes without saying there's no office pool at Short's this year.

As in basketball, endurance is crucial. Agents have worked around the clock since Sunday. They battle through sleep-deprived eyes and aching backs and necks, knowing that responsibilities are piling up at home.

"I'm sticking a load of laundry in, then crawling to bed," said one agent, leaving mid-afternoon after a 10-hour shift.

Regardless of the outcome, they'll take many lessons from their rookie season. They've learned that many small aircraft can't handle the weight of band equipment. They've discovered it's impossible to book a commercial flight from Orono, Maine, to Missoula, Mont. They've felt the awkwardness of calling a losing coach to inform him his flight departs at 7:30 from Gate C.

When it's over in a few weeks, there won't be any trophy to hoist or net to cut down. Nobody will create a video montage of their work set to "One Shining Moment."

Just more work, because spring championship events are around the corner. The off-season begins in June.

"We'll all be taking time off in the summer," Schmidt said.