So the field of 64 for the women’s NCAA tournament was released today. Having full faith in the NCAA’s ability to make some senseless picks, I predicted this to STAN last night:
Lori: la tech will be picked
Lori: taking away a bidfrom a more deserving team
Lori: and la tech will be picked onname alone
And:
Lori: i think the (Delaware) hens (25-5) are very bubble
Lori: i wouldn’t be surprised not to see them in the field of 64
Lori: i’d be surprised if the (Gonzaga) zags (27-3) weren’t picked though
So, if you look at the field of 64, you’ll notice that, as I predicted, Louisiana Tech (20-9) is in as an 11th seed, despite losses to Hawaii (11-15) and Boise State (10-19). The more deserving team they denied may very well have been Delaware, who was roasted by the selection committee despite winning the Colonial regular season and winning two of three over former powerhouse Old Dominion (although unfortunately, not the one that counted). While this was disappointing to see, what outright infuriated me was that Gonzaga was left at home this March, despite a 27-3 record, despite a 23-game winning streak, despite being ranked as high as No. 23 in the nation just two weeks ago. The Zags did lose a tough one to Quinn Thomas and the Santa Clara Broncos in the West Coast Conference tourney final, but before that, their only two losses came to No. 8 seed New Mexico and No. 5 seed Arizona State early in the season. Yet, according to the selection committee, this impressive record wasn’t worthy of getting the WCC a second tourney berth while the Big 12 has six and the SEC, Big Ten, and Pac-10 all have five.
While the snubs were glaring and painful, there also were some questionable seedings among the schools that were picked to dance. The most obvious was Stanford, ranked No. 1 in the nation after winning the Pac-10 tourney, being given a two seed, but also quite noticeable was 13-17 Illinois State, who rode an eight seed in the Missouri Valley Conference tourney right into the NCAAs, earning a No. 15 seed. We actually believe these two strange seedings occurred for the same reason — to boost attendance by creating interesting storylines. By giving Stanford a No. 2 seed, the NCAA can now schedule them for a first-round matchup with 15-seed Santa Clara, and a head-to-head meeting of the Kimyacioglu sisters (Sebnem for Stanford, Yasmin for Santa Clara). Meanwhile, Illinois State was the one school STAN had picked as a 16 seed that did not actually receive the lowest seed (not that STAN is the final word, but he knows his small schools). Our theory is that the NCAA decided to bump ISU from a 16 seed to a 15 seed despite their losing record because the MVC overall is a decent mid-major, thus allowing the NCAA to give SEC tourney champ Tennessee a No. 1 seed and still pair them up with 18-13 Western Carolina, as a 16 seed. What’s so intriguing about this matchup? It means former Lady Vol standout Kellie Jolly (Harper) will return to Thompson-Boling to take on her former coach Pat Summitt. Now, I’m always up for a good laugh hearing play-by-play announcers butcher not one, but two, Kimyacioglu’s names, and as a Lady Vol at heart I’m excited and slightly torn by Jolly’s return to Rocky Top, but it’s not worth it to deny a deserving team a No. 1 seed or say a 13-17 team is better than a 27-3 team in the name of attendance and ratings.
Now let’s take some heat away from the selection committee for a second and focus it on the NCAA overall. Apparently this year the NCAA has reduced the number of schools hosting subregionals from 16 to eight. Instead of flying four teams to 16 sites around the country, eight teams from TWO DIFFERENT REGIONS will descend upon women’s-basketball-loving cities like Knoxville and Storrs for the first and second rounds. I know, it didn’t make much sense to me at first either, but basically even though LSU and UT are both playing in Knoxville in the first round, they cannot meet at least until the NCAA final. This move is clearly another attempt to boost tourney attendance figures (even controversy-laden Fresno, host to two subregionals, was averaging 4,000+ for women’s games), and may possibly even cut down on costs, considering they only have to set up eight sites rather than 16. But how fair is this consolidation to all the schools that put in bids to host a subregional? Once upon a time, the NCAA actually let schools that were in the games host the games, rather than choosing predetermined sites — I bet now, after the explosion of women’s basketball in the ’90s, actually having a home team, at least in the subregionals, would really boost attendance.
Looking at another questionable bracket of big-name schools from big-name conferences spit out by the NCAA selection committee, and the disturbing trend of reducing subregional sites, I think that the NCAA is actually pretty ripe for a Title IX lawsuit. By picking schools who they know can draw crowds, like 17-12 Oklahoma, by massaging seeds in favor of stories, by denying an additional eight schools and their communities of a chance to host a subregional, I don’t believe the NCAA is providing college women with fair and equal athletic opportunities. While a snub of Gonzaga on its own may seem fairly innocuous, when you combine it with all the other “questionable” decisions the NCAA has made over the years, there is at best a disturbing pattern of increasing greed, and at worst institutionalized classism and even sexism. It all comes down to a question of what the NCAA truly values — and whether the women’s athletic community will allow that top NCAA value to be money.
