For those tennis junkies that love the opening few days of the NCAA Championships at the final 16 site you might want to make sure you get to either Athens this year or Winston-Salem next year because it looks like changes are coming in 2019. The NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Tennis Committee recently held a pair of teleconferences to discuss several changes to the NCAA Tournament and they have made several recommendations to the Division I Championship Committee/Competition Oversight Committee which are expected to be approved and implemented in the next 2 to 3 years.
The biggest change will be the addition of a super regional round, beginning in 2019, which would take place in between the second round and quarterfinals. Currently the 16 teams that advance past the second round go straight to the NCAA Championship Site however in this new format the higher seeded team in each section of the bracket would host a match the weekend after the second round. The 8 super regional winners would advance to the NCAA Championship Site with the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals held on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. If you are a fan of college baseball and/or softball then this format will be nothing new since both of those sports currently utilize a super regional round with eight teams at the finals site.
As much as I personally like the current format which packs a ton of team tennis into a six-day window, I know that it’s a grind for the players, parents, fans, and tournament organizers. The weather seems to wreck havoc on the schedule just about every year so the new format would mean that no more than four total matches would be played on a given day. The reduction in matches would eliminate the need to send teams to alternate sites with those matches typically played in front of virtually zero spectators. Another huge plus would be the elimination of a Monday semifinal and a Tuesday final because unless the host institution is still alive the crowds are usually sparse at 3 p.m. on a workday.
Below are the other recommendations which are also expected to be approved:
- NCAA Field would be announced on the Monday following the final weekend of conference tournaments instead of on Tuesday
- The first and second rounds would begin the weekend after selections instead of the current two weekends after selection
- Unseeded teams (17-64) would be placed in the bracket geographically instead of in pods as is currently done
Most of these changes will have litle impact on the budget and will increase the student-athlete experience due to less class time missed and by playing in front of larger crowds. Those selected to play in the singles/doubles portion of the championships will also have to play one less match at the final site should their team advance to that point. The full report from the teleconferences are available at this link.
So what does everyone think – good idea, bad idea, have to wait and see?
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Delaware Athletic Director Chrissi Rawak announced the hiring of Pablo Montana as the Blue Hens new men’s head coach. Montana spent the last 14 seasons at D2’s California University of Pennsylvania before taking the head coaching job at St. Leo on August 2nd but on September 20th he announced he was stepping down due to family reasons. Montana will replace Bruce Myers who stepped down in August after five months on the job to take the head coaching job at Bucknell. Adam Lawton had been the interim coach for the last four months.
Help us in giving a #BlueHens welcome to our brand new @DelawareTEN men’s head coach, Pablo Montana!https://t.co/LiQXKsTmRE pic.twitter.com/TTaWmRM6N4
— #BlueHens (@UDBlueHens) December 5, 2016
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The Atlantic Sun Conference announced on Tuesday that North Alabama will become the conference’s ninth member effective in the fall of 2018. North Alabama, which has been a Division 2 school since D2 was formed in 1972, had everything in place to make the move from D2 to D1 except for the conference invite which was made official today. The Florence based school has both men’s and women’s tennis programs with both making several NCAA Tournament appearances over the years. Florence is roughly 15 miles south of the Tennessee border and 30 miles east of the Mississippi border. The current members of the Atlantic Sun Conference are Florida Gulf Coast, Jacksonville, Kennesaw State, Lipscomb, NJIT, North Florida, Stetson, and USC Upstate
.@ASUNSports welcomes @north_alabama as newest league member for 2018-19 season. #ASUNBuilt #riseandroar https://t.co/yNTMy9oTQh pic.twitter.com/e4Ay9D7Psa
— #ASUNBuilt (@ASUNSports) December 6, 2016
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I mostly want to ask about this change:
"Unseeded teams (17-64) would be placed in the bracket geographically instead of in pods as is currently done"
I used to follow D2 and D3 much more but haven't for about five years. Aren't they also divided up regionally? If so, won't this change in D1 NCAA's result in a lot of the same teams playing each other year after year, thus promoting the same teams repeatedly progressing to the next site? I understand this will help keep costs low for low budget programs, but it seems to give the smaller market and mid-ranked teams less of a chance. I could be wrong though, can someone confirm/comment about this?
I didn't 100% understand that one as well because for the most part they already use geography. That's why teams like San Diego end up at USC or UCLA every year and Florida State ends up at Georgia or Florida more times than not. If I can get more clarification on how the new rule would differ from the old I'll update this post.
As a reminder to all please no more anonymous posts – put your name down in some form.
If I'm understanding the placing teams 17-64 by geography rather than by pods, that could be a major change. Theoretically, you could get teams #1, 17, 18, 19 in the same regional. Seems like a recipe for really unbalanced first round sites
Like baseball, this will place emphasis on who gets the Top 8 seeds and will therefore be eligible to host the super-regionals. Currently, you want to be seeded at least 16th so as to host a regionals; in 2019, you will want that still, but the battle for the elite teams will be to be in the Top 8. In baseball, it's always a "controversy" – in tennis, I suspect it might become one as well. I think it's a good move – it'll shorten the lengthy finals (which, with the individual singles and doubles finals tacked on) which usually last longer than two weeks and puts a lot of pressure on the host site. And it will therefore make it likelier that more schools will make bids for the finals. And, it'll probably avoid moving matches indoors (as often) which, arguably, are unfair to some teams that aren't as good indoors as outdoors.
Philip, I agree that being a top 8 seed will be big for the reasons you mentioned. I think having two weekends (1st/2nd & Super-R) of build up to the final site will be a plus as well because the added buzz should generate more interest as opposed to now where you have the field announced then don't having the opening round until 10 to 11 days later. I'm sure many coaches will like the extra flexibility in the schedule that would allow them to wait out a rain delay instead of going indoors (I guarantee you TCU won't forget last year's scheduling debacle for a while).
Alex, I'm with you – the committee would have to still loosely seed the 17-64 teams to keep that scenario from happening that would send too many highly ranked teams to the same opening round site.
I really like the proposed changes and FWIW I have attended 7 out of the last 9 NCAA finals and it is just too long and the typical heat day after day is very tough on fans and players (especially those that play in the individual event).
There was mo mention of playing the men and women at different sites.If they played the new finals format at the home court of the top seeds (men and women) it would really help attendance.
The other good thing is that any school can now host the finals if they have 6 indoor courts available which most now do,
Bobby, who are the top players coming in January?
William Blumburg (North Carolina 14.66)
Alexandar Lazarov (Wake Forest 14.31)
Borna Gojo (Wake Forest 14.24)
Alastair Gray (TCU 14.07)
Zhe Zhou (Alabama 14.03)
Giovanni Oradini (Mississippi State 13.93)
I also heard that JJ Wolf (14.27) may be at Ohio State in January which would be a big addition for them if it's true.
There may be some more coming in January that I haven't heard about or forgot about.
Is Rishab Agerwal coming back to Miss St?
Billy, I don't know if he's decided yet but last I heard he was leaning toward not returning and staying out on tour.