I will be in Tampa for the NCAA What is decent budget friendly hotel/motel with shuttle to st petersburg forum

Hotels and motels already know the NCAA tournament is coming to town and have adjusted their rates accordingly. Your cheapest lodging will be to rent a camp trailer or RV and stay at the KOA.

that seems like a question for priceline.com, cheaptickets.com or expedia.com

You could stay in Ybor city which a cool little historic distric here in tampa. I work in ybor, its pretty cool nice shopping, art and all that mumbo jumbo. The cool thing is we have a shuttle that takes us back and forth to the forum which is next to channelside which is another cool spot for the relax atmosphere. Ybor city has a howard johnson and there is a hilton garden inn. Other than that you might need to check the prices of the embassy suites, the radison, or the hyatt in our downtown but I think you will find these places will hit the wallet harder. Those are really the only 2 area I can think of that have a shuttle to the forum. Let me know if you need more information on any of these areas.