How I would change the NCAA Womens Basketball Tournament

I like the NCAA Womens Tournament. I like the fact, that just like the men, all the games are televised. Its a far cry from the days where maybe you saw one or two women's tournament games on ESPN or CBS or wherever.  I like the fact that the Women's tournament gets treated on par with the Men's as far as tv exposure, sites where the games are held etc.


But like everything else the Women's Tournament does need help. I mean if you follow the tournament somewhat you'll see that the Women's Tournament does need to broaden itself to make the overall experience good. This blog will hopefully give some ideas on how I'd fix the Women's Tournament.


1) Go to neutral sites for the first 2 rounds just like the men.  I know what your saying "why do this when the games for each site which has home teams draws nobody? Honestly, to me, its a pride thing. I mean if you watched Albany at. Duke last week, there was nobody there. Duke. At Duke and there tons of empty seats. I mean how can you justify that?

Check out this article from espn.com about the women's attendance. http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/tournament/2015/story/_/id/12553346/attendance-ncaa-tournament-sees-boost 

Uconn, the Kings of College Basketball only drew 4,000 per game for each of there first 2 games, about half of what they usually draw. Now, yes, South Carolina drew about 10,000 for each of there games but you cant tell me that even having a home game that you don't sell out doesn't worry you. The reason for the neutral sites is just to get away from being home because its embarrassing. I mean at least try what the Men's tournament is doing. Technically there not home games but at least there not campus. Imagine watching Duke play at home and nobody's there? Besides, neutral sites grow the game and I'm not talking that far away. I'll get to that in a moment.


2)ESPN needs to be better on there coverage. This article from awful announcing says it best. http://awfulannouncing.com/2015/espns-coverage-womens-ncaa-tournament-carries-echoes-sports.html

If there's a better game to get to, go to it. There's no reason you have to stay with a Uconn game when there winning by 30 points and there are other games that are close. I know ESPN would stay with the game in my area because I live in CT. but you have to do a better job with there whip-around coverage as well. There have been lots of times a team will have a 20 pt. lead and they stay with the game even though its not a local team. Be like the Men's tourney used to be and when a team leads by over 10pts. switch to another game.


3)Move the Tournament back to Saturday. This Friday thing didn't work. How could it when half of the Men's Tournament started on Friday? Empty seats all over the place. I'd go to a Saturday/Monday, Sunday/Tuesday format like it was before. Therefore, you'll have the Men's Tournament involved but it wont be as bad.

4)Move the Selection Show back to Sunday. ESPN2 at 8pm sounds good to me. I mean something like that should be on a Sunday. Mondays at 7pm is somewhat of a burial time slot. I'd rather have it on Sundays at 8pm instead of the old days when I believe it was on before the Men's Tournament. That just didn't fit.


5)Focus on more than Uconn. We get it. There great. They draw ratings. But if you want to grow the Women's game, you need to focus more than Uconn. South Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, Baylor, Norte Dame etc. It gets pretty boring when you have one team superior to the whole Women's game. People will get turned off if they don't see anybody that can be on Uconn's level, at least when it comes to exposure.


Now, back to the neutral sites. Here's how I would have scheduled the first round of the tournament:


March 21

FGCU/Okla. St.-12:30pm(Orlando)
Maryland/New Mexico St.-1pm(Baltimore)
Northeastern/Ark.-1:15pm(Dallas)
Dayton/Iowa St.-1:30pm(Dayton)
FSU/Alabama St.-3pm(Orlando)
Princeton/G.B-3:30PM(Baltimore)
Baylor/Northwestern St.-3:45pm(Dallas)
Norte Dame/Montana-4:15pm(Dayton)
Louisville's game-7pm(Orlando)
Ohio St.'s game-7:15pm(Baltimore)
Arizona St.'s game-7:40pm (Dallas)
Minnesota's game-8pm(Dayton)
South Florida's game-9:40 pm(Orlando)
UNC's game-9:50pm(Baltimore)
Texas A&M game-10pm(Dallas)
Kentucky's game-10:10pm(Dayton)

March 22

To save time, I will just list one of the teams, the times and the venues

South Carolina-12:30pm(Raleigh)
Iowa-12:45pm(Nashville)
Oklahoma-1:15pm(Moeghan Sun)
Gonzaga-2:05pm(Los Angeles)
Syracuse-2:45pm (Raleigh)
Chattanooga-3pm(Nashville)
Stanford-3:50pm-Moeghan Sun
Texas-4:40pm-Los Angeles
Duke-7pm-Raleigh
Miami-7pm-Nashville
Rutgers-7pm-Moeghan Sun
Oregon St.-8pm-L.A.
Miss. St.-9pm-Raleigh
Tenn.-9:20-Nashville
Uconn-9:30-Moeghan Sun
California-10:20-L.A.


Now the venues would be:

CFE Arena, Orlando-9,000
Baltimore Arena, Baltimore-14,000
Moody Coliseum-University Park-7,000
The Nutter Center-Dayton-10,400
Municipal Auditorium-Nashville-8,000
Mohegan Sun Arena-Uncasville, CT.-9,000
Rabobank Arena-Bakersfield, CA.-10,400
Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum-Winston Salem, NC.-14,000

All venues, locations and seating capacity are thanks to wikipedia.org.


OK, so the venues don't match up to what I planned but I think you understand. The venues are there and I think if they were announced in advance you can get a little bit of a buzz going on.  So, what do you guys think of my fixing of the NCAA Womens' Basketball Tournament?