The Virginia men and Yale women get an automatic berth as the NTI hosts but everyone else has to earn their spots. The regional hosts and the order of selection are determined by the final rankings which were released the day after the NCAA Finals.
All the teams ranked from #1 through #60 has the opportunity to participate but several usually pass for a variety of reasons – warm weather schools that doesn’t see the value of playing indoors, academic schedule that doesn’t align with the Kick-Off Weekend, would rather play matches against teams that it has a better chance of beating, etc.
Last year there were five women’s teams in the top 20 that passed but this season #1 Stanford was the only one to opt-out; the highest ranked men’s team to pass was #44 UC Santa Barbara.
Men’s teams that opted out – #44 UC Santa Barbara, #45 South Carolina, #51 Harvard, #52 Princeton, #54 Cornell
Women’s teams that opted out – #1 Stanford, #32 Baylor, #41 Princeton, #44 Notre Dame, #59 Utah, #62 Long Beach State
The way the draft works is the first team up gets to choose which of the 15 regional sites they’d like to play at. After they make their selection then the next team gets to choose and so forth. It’s a fascinating concept because unlike the NCAA Tournament where you are placed by the committee in this draft each team sets its own path.
#16 South Florida will have the first choice so what they have to do is look at each of the hosts and make its decision based off these factors:
- What will the host’s roster look like next season (who is coming back/who is departing)?
- Its strengths/weaknesses versus others hosts – i.e if we have a strong 1 and 2 can we find a team that doesn’t have as strong a 1 and 2 so we can at least count on those 2 courts and like wise if we have a weak bottom 2 can we find a team that also has a weaker bottom 2.
- Indoor or outdoor – if we don’t like indoor tennis then we pick an outdoor site and vice-versa.
- Travel expenses – probably not an issue for the Power 5 schools but something that a mid-major might look at.
In my opinion you’ll see South Florida end up going to either Gainesville or Lubbock because they are both outdoor regionals and Texas Tech has to replace its top two players, Soares/Dojas, while Florida has to replace its #1 and #5. I’ll make my projections tomorrow with where I think everyone will go.
Here are the 15 men’s regional hosts and even though it’s an INDOOR tournament 7 of the regionals will be played outdoors. I also listed how many starters are expected to return on each of the hosts.
1. UCLA (outdoors) – most likely will have to replace #1 and #4 (McDonald/Sell)
2. TCU (outdoors) – if Norrie and Rybakov return everyone will be back
3. Ohio State – replace #2 and #4 (Diaz/Steinbach)
4. North Carolina – most likely will have to replace #1 and #3 (Schnur/Clark)
5. Oklahoma – replace #1 and #2 (Harris/Alvarez)
6. Georgia – replace #1 and #6 (Smith/Wood)
7. Wake Forest – replace #3 and #4 (Ho/Bogaerts)
8. Cal (outdoors) – replace #5 (Wikberg)
9. Florida (outdoors) – replace #1 and #5 (Hidalgo/Watson)
10. Texas Tech (outdoors) – replace #1 and #2 (Soares/Dojas)
11. USC (outdoors) – replace #1 (de Vroome)
12. Oklahoma State – return everyone
13. Texas A&M (outdoors) – replace #2, #4, #5 Withrow (Vinsant/Adams/Withrow)
14. Northwestern – replace #4 (Baev)
15. Texas – replace #5 (Riechmann)
Here are the 15 women’s regional hosts with 6 being played outdoors:
1. Cal (outdoors) – replace #2 and #3 (Fabikova/Chi)
2. Florida (outdoors) – replace #3 (Morgan)
3. North Carolina – replace #2, #4, #6 (Kay/Vialle/Dai)
4. Vanderbilt – replace #2 and #4 (Altick/Colton)
5. Ohio State – return everyone
6. Georgia – replace #3 (Garcia)
7. Oklahoma State – replace #4 (Laurente)
8. Pepperdine (outdoors) – replace #5 and #6 (Cutura/Capannolo)
9. Miami FL (outdoors) – replace #1 (Wagner)
10. Michigan – replace #1 (Yurovsky)
11. Auburn (outdoors) – replace #3 and #5 (Burgmans/de Man)
12. Virginia – replace #1, #2, and #3 (Collins/Elbaba/Nauta)
13. Duke – replace #1 (Capra)
14. Texas Tech (outdoors) – return everyone
15. Georgia Tech – replace #4 and #6 (Woodard/Prokhnevska)
I’ll my projections on each women’s regional as well – here is a list of which teams are picking and in which order.
Below is how last year’s draft went:
Below is where the results from this year’s draft will go:
Participating Teams (60)
- The top 3 teams per region (36 teams) according to the final ITA Division I national team rankings (if ranked in Top 75).
- Remaining 24 teams in order based on the final ITA national rankings.
- Participation is not mandatory.
- Information/Entry forms will be sent by e-mail to the Top 75 schools in the final year-end
rankings. The Information/Entry form must be submitted to the ITA by May 25. The form requests 5 phone numbers for the school’s coaching staff and administration that will be used to make contact with each institution during the draft. It is not a commitment to play. - ITA National Team Indoor Championship host schools receive automatic invitation to final 16. (Women: Yale Univerity; Men: University of Virginia)
Procedures
- 15 host teams are displayed on ITA website. A link to each site’s schedule of play and whether it is an indoor or outdoor site will also be displayed. The web page will be instantly updated each time a school selects a site. Teams will be expected to follow the draft’s progress on the website prior to their call time.
- The ITA will call out to each school, in rank order, at predetermined times. The order and call out times will be sent out on June 1st. If the ITA cannot reach anyone at the 5 phone numbers (or total number of those) provided the call administrator will REMOVE THE TEAM FROM THE DRAFT. Coaches will have a maximum of 10 minutes to select what site they would like to play at.
- Highest ranked team not a host/on the board selects which of the 15 sites they want to go to. When called they will choose where they want to play, then the next highest team is called and chooses, and so on.
- A team is allowed to choose wherever it wants to go until a site is filled with 4 teams. The only exception, in order to maintain the integrity of the final 16 draw, will be if a top 8 seeded team(s) select(s) not to host and is/are first in the draft order they cannot choose a site that has a top 7 seed in it, it must select sites with the No. 8-15 seeds.
- The draft will be complete when all 60 places in the draw are occupied.
- Pairings will be determined as the draft progresses. For example: If No. 1 Georgia is a host and the three teams that choose to go there are No. 20 NC State, No. 25 Michigan and No. 41 Wisconsin, the first round match-ups would be: No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 2
NC State vs. No. 3 Michigan. - A team can decide not to participate during the draft. For example a coach can elect not to
participate based on the sites/matches available at his/her team’s time in the Draft. - A list of alternate teams will be notified that while they are not in the original 60 selected for the draft, invitations could be sent to them if teams elect to “pass during their draft turn. A ranking list to No. 125 will be used (in order) for this. If it is necessary to go beyond No. 125, invitations will be sent based on the geography of the remaining sites and selected
by committee. - Teams are responsible for all travel costs to the 15 opening round sites.
- All participating teams (including host sites) must pay a $100 entry fee to the ITA.
- If a team participates in the draft, then later elects to withdraw from the event it will receive
2 unranked losses in the ITA Rankings for the duration of the season as penalty. An alternate will be selected in order of final national ranking (using the same method as in No. 8). If this team is a host site, the invitations to host will be extended to the next highest seed at that site. The seeding match-ups will also be changed at that site.
- Top 15 teams according to the final ITA national rankings;
- Hosting is not mandatory. If a team declines the opportunity to host, it may still participate and the next highest ranked site will be invited to host.
Host Site Requirements
- Host Sites (HS) will be required to distinguish themselves as indoor or outdoor sites prior to the draft, i.e. matches at a site that submits itself as an indoor site prior to the draft will be played indoors regardless of the weather during that event. An outdoor site may play indoors in case of inclement weather per ITA Rule II.B.13.
- HS will turn in proposed schedule of play (included practice court schedule) by May 22 for Operating Committee review. Once the schedule has been approved, the dates of play may not be changed. The times may only be changed if agreed upon by all 4 participating coaches and the head referee.
- HS agrees to chair every match in all 4 team dual matches.
- HS is responsible with all costs associated with hosting the 4 matches (balls, trainers, officials, promotions, etc.).
- Sites that do not have indoor backup are required to have access to 12 outdoor courts in the event of inclement weather.
- HS is required to designate a hotel(s) within 15 miles of site where matches are played.
- For dual gender sites that require play to start on Friday, January 27, the men will play first in 2017 (on a rotational basis that will mirror the rotation for the round of 16 at NCAA tournament the same year)
- Practice courts will be made available at the event site for all participating teams the day prior to the event for a minimum of 3 courts for 90 minutes per team. At dual gender sites, the HS can request permission for warm-up courts for all teams playing on day 2 to be at an alternate site with a similar surface.
- All participating teams (including host sites) must pay a $100 entry fee to the ITA.
Good info Bobby, tamu also has to replace withrow unless he's back for year 7, uga has to also replace Wagland for doubles which is a big loss