9' goals coming in Women's NCAA BB

Ideas to Invigorate Women’s Basketball Follow Study

By JERÉ LONGMAN - NY Times
Published: June 17, 2013


To increase stagnant interest in women’s college basketball, a former prominent official has recommended wide experimentation with the rules and the N.C.A.A. tournament, including holding the men’s and women’s Final Four at the same location on a one-time trial basis.

Val Ackerman, a former president of USA Basketball, recommended the N.C.A.A. consider having teams seeded 33 through 64 play one another in the early rounds, with the winners advancing to play one of the top 32 seeds.
After a six-month study, Val Ackerman, a former president of USA Basketball and the W.N.B.A., recommended that the N.C.A.A. also hold the women’s Final Four on the weekend after the men’s tournament to gauge its effects on the game’s popularity.

She also recommended that the women’s Final Four be held in the same city for multiple years, just as the college baseball World Series is held annually in Omaha, Neb.

The N.C.A.A. should consider using two sites instead of four for the women’s regional semifinals and finals to attract more fans and reduce costs, Ackerman said. And she recommended switching the women’s Final Four back to a Friday-Sunday format instead of the current Sunday-Tuesday format, reducing the number of weeknights that fans would have to travel.

Ackerman, who is now a consultant and teaches sports management at Columbia, did not agree with a suggestion by some officials that the 64-team N.C.A.A. tournament should be reduced to 48 to 52 teams to enhance parity. But she did recommend that the N.C.A.A. consider having teams seeded 33 through 64 play one another in the early rounds, with the winners advancing to play one of the top 32 seeds.

As a further way to enhance competitive balance, Ackerman said that some of the coaches, athletic directors and conference commissioners she interviewed had advised reducing scholarships to 13 per team from 15. (The other two scholarships could be used to finance other women’s teams.)

Some officials also recommended to Ackerman that the season be shortened to one semester. One possibility is to begin the women’s season after college football’s regular season and end it after the men’s N.C.A.A. tournament.

To address declines in shooting and scoring, Ackerman advised that the rules should be re-examined to speed the game, reduce the physicality and make it easier for teams to score. She advised that a kind of rules laboratory be created to consider radical suggestions, such as one by Coach Geno Auriemma of Connecticut that the rim be lowered to 9 feet from 10 feet.

Division I women’s teams shot 38.9 percent from the field and 30.57 percent on 3-point attempts last season. Both were all-time lows. Scoring also hit a new low, 62.12 points per game.

While women’s basketball has made tremendous strides since the N.C.A.A. began sponsoring the sport in 1982, Ackerman said in a statement, “There was a very strong feeling that the game needs a sense of energy and urgency.”