Women's Basketball Tourney Going Back To 16 Early-Round Sites

NCAA Returning To Old Format For Early Rounds

The NCAA beginning in ’09 will feature 16 pre-determined sites for the first two rounds of the women’s college basketball tournament, with four schools assigned to each location (NCAA). In S.F., Michelle Smith notes the ’08 tournament will be the last to include eight pre-determined sites with eight teams at each. While that "made life easier" for ESPN, which televises every tournament game, it “did nothing for attendance, making it harder for fans -- with just a few days advance notice -- to travel to see their teams play.” The NCAA last had 16 sites for early-round games in ’04, when attendance averaged 6,697. That figure dropped to 3,770 in ’06, but jumped to 4,789 this year. Pro Basketball HOFer Nancy Lieberman “doesn’t see the move as a sign of trouble for the women’s game.” Lieberman: “We are still selling our game. You can’t say, ‘Look at the guys, let’s just do what they do.’ That’s a mistake.” Meanwhile, Smith reports the Pac-10 Conference is not holding a league-wide media day, instead implementing “regional media days,” which reflects the “waning interest” in Pac-10 women’s basketball. Coaches voted for the move, as there was “too little to gain for the effort of traveling and disrupting practice and class schedules” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 10/25).