This may have been discussed already, but.....
- Thread starter 38843dawg
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Exactly, it's like baseball. In order to fill the seats, the women's NCAA needs to have teams host the early rounds to bring their own fans. They couldn't pack neutral site facilities with fans traveling.
those explanations ya'll gave make perfect sense. But this year, the sites were pre-selected. And while a lot of the sites have the host team, some have no team that plays in the town. What the hell?
Making matters worse, many of the host teams are seeded far lower than others. Auburn is one of the best teams in the country and has to play at 6 or 7 seed Rutgers.
My point is, the system made sense until this year.
Making matters worse, many of the host teams are seeded far lower than others. Auburn is one of the best teams in the country and has to play at 6 or 7 seed Rutgers.
My point is, the system made sense until this year.
That makes no sense to pre-select the sites, but then again, it's women's basketball, so who really cares?
I do remember seeing a bracket a few years back where UT didn't have to leave Knoxville until the Final Four, and UConn played at home all the way until the Final Four. Obviously they are past those days now.
I do remember seeing a bracket a few years back where UT didn't have to leave Knoxville until the Final Four, and UConn played at home all the way until the Final Four. Obviously they are past those days now.
Duke is a 1 seed and has to play on a 9 seeds home court and Stanford is a 2 seed having to play on a 10 seeds home court.
I'm told that there is beginning to be a push to take these things away from actual home courts and put them in smaller arenas. For instance, Georgia is hosting the first two rounds in Duluth at the Gwinnett County Civic Center, a smaller arena - this would be like Ole Miss hosting at Southaven or MSU hosting at Tupelo, if the flag issue wasn't in play. Delta State lost the swimming and diving championships because of the flag issue.
There just simply isn't enough interest in women's sports to play neutal sites outside of the Final Four.
When I worked with the NCAA, I had to attend a Division II women's softball national championship tournament in Salem, Oregon. The field that it was played on was simply a four/five-plex that you would find in any small town in Mississippi, with a few more rows of bleachers and a tarp over a table that served as a press box. It was embarassing. and cold. Outside some of the players' parents and such, I counted about eight local fans - two of which came out and said "this sucks" and left.
Salem, Oregon sucks.
I'm told that there is beginning to be a push to take these things away from actual home courts and put them in smaller arenas. For instance, Georgia is hosting the first two rounds in Duluth at the Gwinnett County Civic Center, a smaller arena - this would be like Ole Miss hosting at Southaven or MSU hosting at Tupelo, if the flag issue wasn't in play. Delta State lost the swimming and diving championships because of the flag issue.
There just simply isn't enough interest in women's sports to play neutal sites outside of the Final Four.
When I worked with the NCAA, I had to attend a Division II women's softball national championship tournament in Salem, Oregon. The field that it was played on was simply a four/five-plex that you would find in any small town in Mississippi, with a few more rows of bleachers and a tarp over a table that served as a press box. It was embarassing. and cold. Outside some of the players' parents and such, I counted about eight local fans - two of which came out and said "this sucks" and left.
Salem, Oregon sucks.
and made it even worse. i think it's a unique feature that if you play well enough, you are rewarded by hosting during the tourney, like college baseball. i don't think there's enough interest (at most schools and cities) to have pre-selected sites like the men's tourney.</p>
in suburbs. Suburbs is where women's college sports fans often lives. You'll see more of it in the future.
Watch tonight - Nationwide Arena will be no more than 1/4 full. Looks bad on TV. The product is going down as well. Women's basketball is simply not as good as it was 10 years ago, sans Connecticut.
Watch tonight - Nationwide Arena will be no more than 1/4 full. Looks bad on TV. The product is going down as well. Women's basketball is simply not as good as it was 10 years ago, sans Connecticut.
I think the way they do it now is that an arena/school can bid to host the tournament. If a bid for a venue is accepted and the host school makes the tournament they get to play at home. That's why you are seeing some lower seeds serve as hosts this year. If that team doesn't make the tournament, then it's just a neutral site venue.
FWIW, it used to be that the top four seeds in each region hosted the first two rounds.
when UT lost yesterday, and ESPN was talking about how great they had been in the first two rounds in their history. Something like 40-0. I bet 38 of those were on their home court. They forgot to mention that little fact.
Make the women's tourney a 2 weekend event.
Weekend #1: 8 sites (each) host an 8-team regional. Make the regionals "truly" regional so attendance will swell. Only teams seed 6, 7, and 8 (the bottom 24 teams in the 64-team tourney) would have to play faaaarrrrr away from home. 4 games played on Friday, 2 on Saturday, 1 on Sunday.
Weekend #2: The 8 regional champs move on to the Elite 8 site. Once again, 4 games played on Friday, 2 on Saturday, National Championship game on Monday.
The key to this format would be to make sure that the regional seeds 1-5 are located within a 10 hour drive of their campuses, thus increasing the likelihood that attendance would increase. Having fans from 8 teams converge on one site also helps attendance for all of the games at that site
Don't tell me the girls can't play 3 games in 3 days. They do it in high school and AAU.
One issue would be competing for airtime with the men's tourney, but that COULD be solved by shifting the women's season to begin and end 2 weeks earlier than at the present. This move would also present an opportunity for the networks to air women's games for 2 weeks before the men get started.
A second issue is "the product" wouldn't be as spread out as the NCAA supposedly prefers, but this could be remedied by restricting a city to hosting a regional only once in a 3 year period. This, I believe would actually showcase the sport over a wider area in the long run. Face it, Knoxville, Storrs, and a few other cities have hosted regionals annually for so long that they think the regional is an entitlement.
Weekend #1: 8 sites (each) host an 8-team regional. Make the regionals "truly" regional so attendance will swell. Only teams seed 6, 7, and 8 (the bottom 24 teams in the 64-team tourney) would have to play faaaarrrrr away from home. 4 games played on Friday, 2 on Saturday, 1 on Sunday.
Weekend #2: The 8 regional champs move on to the Elite 8 site. Once again, 4 games played on Friday, 2 on Saturday, National Championship game on Monday.
The key to this format would be to make sure that the regional seeds 1-5 are located within a 10 hour drive of their campuses, thus increasing the likelihood that attendance would increase. Having fans from 8 teams converge on one site also helps attendance for all of the games at that site
Don't tell me the girls can't play 3 games in 3 days. They do it in high school and AAU.
One issue would be competing for airtime with the men's tourney, but that COULD be solved by shifting the women's season to begin and end 2 weeks earlier than at the present. This move would also present an opportunity for the networks to air women's games for 2 weeks before the men get started.
A second issue is "the product" wouldn't be as spread out as the NCAA supposedly prefers, but this could be remedied by restricting a city to hosting a regional only once in a 3 year period. This, I believe would actually showcase the sport over a wider area in the long run. Face it, Knoxville, Storrs, and a few other cities have hosted regionals annually for so long that they think the regional is an entitlement.