Near the end of last week I added a rankings tab in the menu that will have real-time rankings that will be updated from Thursday through Monday. Right now it currently shows a projection for tomorrow’s top 25 for both the men and women and then by April I’ll expand it to the top 45-50. This content will only be available for College Tennis Today subscribers so if you’re not on board yet you are missing out.
The just completed tournaments in Indian Wells and San Diego were the last big ones until conference tournaments start in late April so by now most schools should be in conference play. The Big 12 is one of the exceptions because with only six men’s members they don’t start until a week from Friday.
I’ll list out all the bigger matches by conference that will be coming up this week and I’ll try to do this every Monday until tournament time so you’ll know what to keep an eye on. There are very few Pac-12 schools (men or women) in action this week with many taking finals so most of the action is in the ACC, Big Ten, and SEC.
| Men | Women |
| ACC | |
| Virginia Tech at Wake Forest (Tuesday) | Northwestern at Georgia Tech (Wednesday) |
| NC State at Duke (Wednesday) | Virginia at Duke (Friday) |
| Notre Dame at Virginia Tech (Friday) | NC State at Notre Dame (Friday) |
| Florida State at Louisville (Friday) | Virginia at North Carolina (Sunday) |
| Tulsa at North Carolina (Saturday) | Miami FL at Notre Dame (Sunday) |
| Wake Forest at Georgia Tech (Sunday) | NC State at Wake Forest (Sunday) |
| Duke at Virginia (Sunday) | |
| UCF at Florida State (Sunday) | |
| Big Ten | |
| Illinois at TCU (Wednesday) | Northwestern at Georgia Tech (Wednesday) |
| Wisconsin at San Diego (Wednesday) | Nebraska at Minnesota (Saturday) |
| Purdue at Northwestern (Friday) | Maryland at Northwestern (Saturday) |
| Ohio State at Michigan (Sunday) | |
| Northwestern at Indiana (Sunday) | |
| Iowa at Minnesota (Sunday) | |
| Big 12 | |
| Illinois at TCU (Wednesday) | Texas A&M at Baylor (Wednesday) |
| Memphis at Texas Tech (Friday) | Texas Tech at Texas (Friday) |
| Illinois at Cal (Saturday) | TCU at Texas (Sunday) |
| Memphis at Baylor (Sunday) | Texas Tech at Baylor (Sunday) |
| Oklahoma State at SMU (Sunday) | Iowa State at Kansas (Sunday) |
| Illinois at Stanford (Monday) | |
| Texas A&M at TCU (Monday) | |
| Pac-12 | |
| Illinois at Cal (Saturday) | Washington at Colorado (Friday) |
| Illinois at Stanford (Monday) | |
| SEC | |
| Mississippi State at Arkansas (Thursday) | Arkansas at Tulsa (Wednesday) |
| Ole Miss at Mississippi State (Saturday) | Texas A&M at Baylor (Wednesday) |
| Kentucky at South Carolina (Sunday) | Florida at Arkansas (Friday) |
| Texas A&M at TCU (Monday) | Vanderbilt at Auburn (Friday) |
| Texas A&M at LSU (Saturday) | |
| Mississippi State at Georgia (Sunday) | |
| Kentucky at Auburn (Sunday) | |
| Other | |
| Memphis at Texas Tech (Friday) | Denver vs. Dartmouth (La Jolla – Friday) |
| Drake at Cornell (Saturday) | Florida International at South Florida (Saturday) |
| Tulsa at North Carolina (Saturday) | William & Mary at Harvard (Sunday) |
| Memphis at Baylor (Sunday) | |
| Oklahoma State at SMU (Sunday) | |
When did Illinois go to the big 12?
Can someone please explain to me how Juan Benitez can take an entire year of school off (and play 11 pro tournaments from the beginning of class thru NCAAs) and not lose a year of eligibility? He's only a sophomore because I think only his 2015 Spring semester playing appearances counted as a year of NCAA participation. If he was in school last year at Baylor and was taking online courses, then his bio should reflect him being a Redshirt Soph.
Along the same train of thought, Alan Gadjiev is a 21 year old Redshirt Freshman. By the time his senior year NCAA rolls around, he will be a 24 year old. For some framing, Henrik Wiersholm, a Junior, is a full year younger than Gadjiev.
I love having foreign players in college tennis for a myriad of reasons but these examples, I'm sure there are others like them as well, are a little disconcerting.
I know in the past I've seen guys show up as a freshman or sophomore on the school website then the next year it jumps up to a junior or a senior. Not sure if it'll do that in these cases but we'll see.
The issue of Juan Benitez eligibility PALES in comparison to the way the NCAA tennis tournament allows the top 16 seeds to play their first two matches at HOME! If you look just at last week's results you see how BIG HOME COURT ADVANTAGE IS!!! I guess some folks are living in a vacuum and are not aware of how the NCAA BASKETBALL tournament has all teams playing all matches at neutral sites.
Isn't that what a tournament is supposed to be? I know there are lots of excuses ready for why teams should be allowed to play every match at home and why it isn't really a huge advantage to the Georgia men's or women's programs to play EVERY MATCH OF THE TOURNAMENT AT THEIR HOME COURTS. SURE! It's certainly not a recruiting advantage either is it?
So many times tennis is its own worst enemy.
As long as we are talking about eligibility, I'd like to know how Arkansas women have had two girls transfer in, one was Craft who went from Georgia to Baylor to Arkansas, and now Johnjohn who went from Baylor to Nevada to Arkansas. Both two time transfers and both eligible immediately without having to sit out.
Baseball, softball, soccer, volleyball, women's basketball and more have their NCAA tournament first few rounds at the home sites of the higher seeded teams.
Having the entire NCAA tennis tournament at neutral sites would be beyond silly.
NCAA men's basketball and NCAA tennis – apples and oranges