As the women’s NCAA Tournament windles its participants down from 64 to 16, it’s becoming clear the organization responsible for March Madness made a big mistake last spring.
That is when it decided to change the first and second round games to predetermined sites, having schools bid on eight spots (with the recipients being chosen based on attendance records) rather than let the top four seeds of each bracket host.
The Lady Tigers lost out on a bid because their attendance numbers were sub-par last year, when the Lady Tigers finished 18-12, and they are suffering because of it this year. LSU is a No. 1 seed in the West region and has a 29-3 record but is forced to travel to the West Coast for its games.
The tournament selection committee intentionally put host teams on its home court, which left the Lady Tigers stuck in Oregon for their first two games and California for the next two.
LSU coach Sue Gunter, along with many other coaches are furious with the plan, which will remain in place through next season, and want it changed back to the old way or have the games played on all neutral sites like the men’s tournament.
Their argument is strong, and considering this plan is blatantly unfair to the majority of teams that qualified to the 2003 tournament, the NCAA should consider drastic changes in the future for many reasons.
First, many lower seeded teams had the opportunity to play home games, including No. 5 seeds Louisiana Tech and Georgia, No. 6 seeds New Mexico and Colorado and No.10 seeds Old Dominion, Cincinnati and Oklahoma. Under the old format, all these teams would be on the road.
No. 1 seed Tennessee and No. 3 seed Stanford had the possibility to play all their games at home before the Final Four in Atlanta, which is unfair to every team in the Mideast and West regions.
The NCAA’s reasoning behind the move was to take a step toward having neutral sites, but its logic is faulty. By deciding beforehand which teams get home games, the organization is punishing teams that may have breakout seasons or don’t have stellar attendance records.
The move essentially is cutting off the NCAA’s figurative nose to spite its face. In trying to please every team, the NCAA is sacrificing high attendance numbers by shipping teams to far-off arenas.
In the business of college basketball, which is controlled by money brought in from multi-million dollar television, it doesn’t make sense to alienate teams and fans just to experiment on an already faulty idea. This only will hurt TV ratings.
My solution would be to scrap the idea of predetermined or neutral sites and go back to what worked for the NCAA for 20 years. Letting the top teams in each bracket play at least two home games rewards a program for having a solid year and motivates schools to win.