A few months back the NCAA Division 1 Men’s and Women’s Tennis Committee had its annual meeting to discuss different topics/items for the upcoming season. The information is available to the general public on ncaa.org but it can be tough to find so I figured I’d share the report here and talk about some of the interesting things that they discussed.
Below are the conferences whose champions are guaranteed a bid into the 64-team NCAA Tournament. The Southland (Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Lamar, New Orleans, Nicholls St, Abilene Christian, Incarnate Word) was granted a waiver to get a bid despite only having 4 eligible teams last season. Both Abilene Christian and Incarnate Word recently made the move from Division 2 to Division 1 and thus are ineligible for postseason play until the 2017-18 season.
In its review of the 2015 NCAA Championships they talked about needing to spruce up the selection show with more commentary about specific match-ups. They also mentioned that travel distance and conference opponent restrictions played a role in where teams were placed in the bracket (not new).
They made some interesting observations about the NCAA Championship Finals Site and potential format changes in the future due to the space issues of trying to have such a massive event at one sight and due to weather issues that occur just about every year which wreaks havoc on the schedule. Possible solutions that will be reviewed are splitting the men and women instead of having them at the same site (have been combined since 2006), utilizing college baseball’s super regional format which has the 16 regional winners meet in 8 super regionals with the 8 champions playing at a final site (Omaha for baseball), changing dates to have the finals on a weekend (no brainer if you want people to actually show up), and move the individual portion from the spring to the fall (fatigue factor and gets lost in the shuffle IMO). The ITA made its recommendations to the NCAA that they would like to see super regionals and the individuals moved to the fall.
One thing they did approve was moving the start time of the finals up to Noon and 4pm local; it has been 1pm and 5pm in year’s past.
They commended Baylor for providing streaming video through PlaySight and hopefully this will be the standard going forward.
The .500 rule will stay in place which means to be eligible for an at-large selection to the NCAAs a team must have at least a .500 record. I personally would have liked to see an addendum added which stipulates that you can’t have more than 2 wins counted from the same date. The reason I say that is because no team should be able to beat the same opponent 4 times in one day and get credit for all those wins. I don’t think getting beat 6-0, 6-1 four times in one day is good for the student-athlete experience. If you can’t legitimately get to .500 without “buying” wins then you don’t belong in the tournament.
There were no results overturned by the ITA last year due to protest.
The USTA provided financial support to televise the following conference championships: Big 12 (FoxSports), Southeastern (ESPN+), Mountain West (MW Network), and American Athletic (The American Digital Network). The ACC wasn’t mentioned but it was scheduled to be on ESPN+ as well but due to weather the televised/streamed portion wasn’t able to air.
To look through the full document which includes stuff that I personally didn’t find as relevant you can click here.
NCAA Tournament Automatic Qualification (AQ).
- Recommendation. That the following conferences receive automatic bids for the 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships (32 conferences for the women’s championships and 31 for the men’s):
- America East Conference (women only)
- American Athletic Conference
- Atlantic Coast Conference
- Atlantic Sun Conference
- Atlantic 10 Conference
- Big East Conference
- Big Sky Conference
- Big South Conference
- Big Ten Conference
- Big 12 Conference
- Big West Conference
- Colonial Athletic Association
- Conference USA
- Horizon League
- The Ivy League
- Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
- Mid-American Conference
- Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
- Missouri Valley Conference
- Mountain West Conference
- Northeast Conference
- Ohio Valley Conference
- Pac-12 Conference
- Patriot League
- Southeastern Conference
- Southern Conference
- Southland Conference*
- Southwestern Athletic Conference
- The Summit League
- Sun Belt Conference
- West Coast Conference
- Western Athletic Conference.
- *Note: The Southland Conference requested a waiver for its men’s program after having exhausted its grace period. As a result of recent conference realignments, the conference lost an active member that would have ensured eligibility for an AQ in 2016. In its request, the conference asks permission to include a reclassifying member to meet the minimum requirements.
- Effective Date. September 1, 2015
- Rationale. All eligible conferences are being recommended with the inclusion of the Southland Conference’s men, pending waiver resolution. The committee recommends granting the waiver.
Review of 2015 Championships
- Brackets. The committee reviewed the brackets and results. Members took no action but noted the automatic qualifiers, conference opponent restriction and minimizing the number of flights has an effect on the bracket in general and the number of at large teams ultimately selected.
- Evaluations. The committee reviewed the evaluations from participants and site representatives. The committee suggested that additional highlights be incorporated into both selection shows along with additional commentary for specific matchups and especially teams that have played each other earlier in the season. The committee also discussed potentially interviewing the committee chairs during the selection shows.
- First and Second Rounds. The committee discussed the process for appointing qualified site representatives and agreed it best to reach out in advance of selections to determine interest and availability. The committee commended this year’s site representatives who served in this role for the first time, and members asked staff to create a best practices document for the future to help administer the preliminary rounds. Committee members also agreed to continue reaching out to the site representatives in their region to assist with preparations
Finals Site
- Format
- The committee reviewed the schedule of matches and discussed the difficulty of scheduling practices and matches for 32 teams (16 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams), especially during inclement weather, which was a factor each day of competition in Waco, Texas. Regarding match times, the committee voted to change the times of the team semifinals and finals to noon and 4 p.m. local time, which is consistent with the current start times for quarterfinals competition.
- The committee discussed the overall format of this championship. Among potential changes discussed were
- Splitting the genders into separate championship sites
- The concept of a super regional and Elite Eight finals site
- Changing the dates to allow team finals to be played on the weekend
- Splitting the individual and team championship by moving the individual championship to the fall.
- The committee’s priority is the student-athlete experience and ensuring that the format of the team and individual championship provides the best possible experience. The committee and NCAA staff will continue these conversations throughout the 2015-16 season and gather feedback from tennis stakeholders. This will also allow the committee to consider the outcome of the current scoring format proposal. NCAA staff will develop a financial analysis for the various formats discussed.
- Inclement-Weather Plans. The committee emphasized its priority to play championship matches outdoors as weather permits throughout the championships. The committee will base its decisions on moving competition indoors or to an alternate indoor site on the primacy of the student-athlete experience.
- Webcasting Minimums. The committee commended the investment Baylor made to the championships by videostreaming every match throughout the championships. This enhanced the experience for student-athletes and their fans.
- Misconduct Issues. The committee commended the meet referees’ handling of potentially volatile situations. Fan behavior should be managed by the host institution in the future. The committee had an extensive conversation about how to best educate fans and student-athletes about proper behavior, particularly in light of the decorum policies being experimented with at difference conferences.
- 500 or Above Criterion Implementation. The committee noted that the .500 or above criterion will remain in place for future championships.
- Minimum Number of Singles/Doubles Matches for Selections. The committee discussed the current requirements for minimum number of matches for singles/doubles matches and made no changes
- Overturned Results by ITA. The ITA did not overturn any results this year. Staff will continue to work with the ITA to update the committee on any overturned results.
- USTA. Elissa Kinard Hill and Virgil Christian joined the committee to discuss various topics. The committee will continue to work closely with the USTA to review the current collegiate championship model. Ms. Hill provided an update on the current facilities the USTA is building in Florida, which are scheduled to be completed in 2016. The USTA has hired Sports Impacts to conduct an economic impact survey, and results should be available in September. In lieu of College Match Day, this year the USTA provided financial support to televise several conference championships, including the Big 12, Southeastern, Mountain West and American Athletic championships.
- ITA and USTA. The committee did not meet jointly with the USTA and ITA this year.
- ITA. Tim Russell, David Benjamin and Angel Prinos joined the committee to discuss various topics. The ITA Division I Operating Committee voted to make four recommendations to the committee, which included the previously proposed no-ad scoring format. The ITA Division I Operating Committee also proposed a super regional team format and moving the singles and doubles championships to the fall.
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