Who's Who and the White What?

WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

(Jenny O'Bryan reports on the recent meeting discussing "The White Papers" . No, they aren't about BREAKING BAD villian Walter White...nor highly sought after 2014 WBB recruit Jatarie White.  The papers do have potential to augment and make changes in the womens' game post-season, though...)

Val Ackerman

This past summer a report was given to the NCAA Vice President of Championships (and others) that suggested changes be made to the women’s game.  The report was 52 pages and was full of many suggestions to help increase interest and grow the game of women’s basketball.  This report was submitted by Val Ackerman, former WNBA President/USA Basketball president and current Big East Commissioner, and is known as the Ackerman report or the White Papers.  

There has been much written about the report since it hit the media in June.  Social media basketball guru’s have been tweeting about it, linking articles and opinions of the many ways that these changes, if implemented, can grow the game. 

This past Monday the Who’s Who of the women’s basketball world (Bill the Goat must of eaten my invitation as it arrived at the Cardinal Couple Worldwide Headquarters) gathered in Indianapolis to talk about and hammer out agreements on changes they would like to see implemented.  While this group has no authority to make the changes, they are making recommendations to a women’s basketball committee, my guess is the guest list carries heavy clout. 

Our buddy Dougie was there...

The guest list included 35 people of which Louisville’s own Coach Jeff Walz was a participant.  Coaches Geno Auriemma (UConn), Muffet McGraw (Notre Dame), Tara VanDerveer (Stanford) , Holly Warlick (Tennessee), Jennifer Rizzotti (Hartford),  Doug Bruno (DePaul), Sherry Coale (Oklahoma), Vivian Stringer (Rutgers) and Sue Semrau (Florida State) were the high profile coaches invited, along with conference representatives, athletic administrators, television executives and NCAA committee members.  A lone referee, Dee Kantner was also involved. 

While the original report is extensive (you can read the full report here:

https://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/ncaa/PDFs/2013/NCAA+Division+I+Womens+Basketball+White+Paper+2013),

Monday’s discussion primarily focused on tournament changes.  

The changes agreed upon would not take effect until the 2014-15 season, and of the tournament changes, there appears to be “tremendous support” for”

<-- Moving the women’s tournament back one weekend, so as not to conflict with the Men’s Final Four (Louisville fans can appreciate this one, as many a people I saw and spoke with in NOLA this past year were driving back and forth between NOLA and Atlanta to be a part of both Final Fours).
 

<-- The Final Four will move from a Sunday/Tuesday lineup to a Friday/Sunday format
T
- -- The top 16 seeds to host opening rounds of the tournament, not predetermined host sites

<-- Super Regionals will consist of 2 sites (not 4) each hosting 8 teams (not 4).
 

<-- 3 venues will host and rotate super regionals and Final Four, for multiple years.  For example:  venues A and B will host super regionals and venue C will host the Final Four.  The following year B and C will host super regionals and A will host Final Four.

Maybe they should have invited Jatarie White to the
White Paper discussion...

I personally like a lot of these proposed changes especially not conflicting with the men’s final four and the Friday/Sunday change.  I love the idea of the 2 super regional sites.  More teams at one site means more basketball to watch.  I would love the opportunity to see more teams in the tournament compete.   I am not sure how I feel about the rotating venues change.  I’ll have to wait and try that one on before I comment on it. 

Some additional items that were discussed favorably were officials receiving more training, professional development of coaches and staff, and at least currently, keeping the scholarship limit at 15. 

In the interest of parity there was some discussion in the original report to limit the number of scholarships to 13 (this is what I believe the men’s side has).  The thinking being with fewer scholarships at schools, athletes would be forced to diversify their choices and so as not to see the top recruits heading to the same school (s) year after year.  I don’t think cutting the total by 2 reduces those chances at all.   Some schools consistently only carry 12-13 kids as it is.  I also think with injuries seemingly rampant every year, a higher roster count minimizes the hurt a team takes when one goes down.  Of course, coaches can choose to use or not use all their scholarships.  I suspect with some coaches it is a personal choice to keep their rosters smaller. 

Nashville skyline

Again, none of the above mentioned changes are new rules, yet.  These are all just recommendations  The rules committee will take these suggestions in to account in their October meetings. 
 

For the time being, you can make your plans for Nashville in 2014 for Sunday and Tuesday to see your beloved Cardinals battling in the Final Four again.  I intend to be there.  How ‘bout you?

( EDITOR NOTE: Bill the Goat denies eating any of Jenny's mail from the NCAA. Those brownies she brought in last Tuesday, though....he's taken an Alford plea on them...)

-Jenny O'Bryan

....

Tuesday Cardinal Couple -- Does NCAA WBB need changing?

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Does College women's basketball need to "re-invent" itself?

The NCAA is looking at women's college basketball again.

Before you run to the hills screaming and clutching your pitchforks and possessions, you need to know that it's just a preliminary study. Given the rate that the NCAA decides on most issues, most of the things that are out-lined in Val Ackerman's "white paper" on the sport probably wouldn't take place or receive serious consideration until years from now. In addition to loving their rules and regulations, the NCAA never sprints down the court...

Val has conducted interviews (100+ of them) over the last six months with coaches, college presidents, conference commissioners, athletic directors, television network executives and representatives, NCAA National office staff and outside sports executives.

No, she didn't contact Don Paulie or Timmy the Intern here at CARDINAL COUPLE.

Val is the founding president of the WNBA and past president of USA basketball. Based on her findings, she notes that the sport needs a jolt in order to spark growth and that the game is not "broken" but has plateaued in recent years and there is a "tremendous appetite" for change in the way the sport is played, marketed and managed.

Her paper is an outline for an action plan that focuses on the "vision, values and priorities", "the championships", "the game", "the business of women's basketball" and governance and management. Link below:

White Paper on WBB


Some things she discusses are:

-Avoiding doing things the same way men's BB does and beginning a separate identity for the sport.

-Returning to a Friday/Sunday Final Four format.

-A two site super regional instead of the current four sites...with eight teams per site.

-New seeding policies where the bottom 32 in the NCAA Tournament play each other in a game before advancing to play the top 32 teams.

-A multi-year site for the NCAA Final Four, like softball has in Oklahoma City and baseball does in Omaha.

Some of the ideas will not be popular with fans and schools. Some of her suggestions should be tossed into the dumpster with the trash. Some are thought-provoking and several are actually pretty good.

The question here is...does the game of women's college basketball need a radical makeover on the Division I level? Do scholarships need to be cut from 15 to 13 to create parity? Should the height of the rims be altered and does the game need to be more marketable, easier to score and referee and...will all this create interest and more attendance?

Heady stuff. Val seems to think the game has stagnated since 2004. Cardinal fans would beg to differ, seeing the game explode here locally over the past 10 years...largely due to the presence of Jeff Walz, two final NCAA Tournament game appearances, Angel McCoughtry and Shoni Schimmel. The KFC YUM! Center didn't hurt either.

Yet, there are schools with very good programs and players that would absolutely love to have 2,000 a game in the stands.

Does the NCAA need to meddle, poke, prod and change College WBB?

Time will tell. And, one can only hope that the clock ticks very slowly on changes. An old adage goes..."If it isn't broke, don't fix it." Wise guidance, prudent judgement and avoidance of radical adaptations in policy changes is the words we'd offer Val and the folks in Indianapolis.

-Paulie

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