The NCAA announced that the women’s basketball tournament will expand from 64 teams to 68. The decision was made in an effort to “promote parity, equity and inclusion.”
The “NCAA announces expansion of women’s college basketball tournament to 68 teams” is a recent announcement by the NCAA. The new change will add six more teams to the top 25, bringing it up to 68.
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- Mechelle Voepel is an espnW reporter that covers the WNBA, women’s college basketball, and other college sports. Voepel has been with ESPN since 1996 and has covered women’s basketball since 1984.
Starting this season, the NCAA announced that the women’s basketball tournament would expand to a 68-team field, up from 64.
In addition, the women’s selection presentation will be shown on ESPN on Sunday, March 13. Since 2006, the program has shown on Mondays, but it will now air on Sundays to accommodate the additional games, which will be held on March 16-17.
The last four at-large teams, as well as teams seeded 65 through 68, will play in the opening round games before the championship’s first and second rounds, which begin March 18-19.
The first- and second-round games will be hosted by the top 16 teams. The four new opening-round games for the 2022 tournament will be played at four of the 16 locations. The initial round will be conducted at a neutral location to be decided beginning in 2023.
In 2011, 68 teams competed in the men’s competition, culminating in the First Four, which takes place before the first round of play. The men’s First Four has been hosted in Dayton, Ohio, every season except 2021, when it was moved to Indiana along with the remainder of the men’s tournament due to the COVID-19 epidemic.
In a statement, Nina King, head of the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee and director of athletics at Duke, stated, “This was another critical step in offering further championship participation options for women’s basketball student-athletes.” “The committee was in favor of putting this in place as quickly as possible, and we’re happy that the larger championship field will be in play for the 2017 tournament and beyond.”
The NCAA women’s tournament started in 1982 with 32 participants and expanded over time to 64 teams in 1994.
The expansion to 68 teams comes on the heels of other recent NCAA moves involving women’s basketball, such as the decision to adopt the March Madness branding for the women’s tournament. The adjustments follow the NCAA commissioning a gender equality investigation by the law firm Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP analyzing its championships after differences between men’s and women’s basketball tournaments were revealed in March.
In a statement, Lisa Campos, head of the Division I Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee and director of sports at UTSA, stated, “The larger bracket and championship prospects for Division I women’s basketball student-athletes are crucial.” “While the championship will be held at top-16 seed campus sites in 2022, this is a transition year for the tournament, and strong consideration will be given to other areas for improvement, such as opening-round games being played at a predetermined site, in order to improve the championship experience in 2023 and beyond.”
The Division I Women’s Basketball Committee also accepted an amended Selection Principles and Procedures document for 2021-22, which now has 12 members instead of the previous year’s ten. The paper will reflect the change from 32 automatic qualifying teams to 36 at-large teams, as well as revised bracketing principles text.
All games of the 2022 women’s tournament will be aired on ESPN networks.
Geno Auriemma, the women’s coach at UConn, believes the increase to 68 is mostly “because the guys do it.” However, he said that it may be a benefit if it means more mid-major and small-conference teams have a chance to enter the women’s NCAA tournament field.
“Then I’m in,” Auriemma, whose Huskies compete in the Big East, said. “I’m not sure why the eighth- or ninth-best teams from the strong conferences deserve to play in the NCAA tournament if it’s more about getting them in.”
Kim Mulkey, the women’s coach at LSU, stated, “You don’t want the tournament to be diluted as a result. And I say that here at LSU, where that 68th berth could be needed this season. It’s OK if it benefits the event and is something that should have been done. However, you don’t want it to become 72 in a few years.”
Bridgeport, Connecticut, Greensboro, North Carolina, Wichita, Kansas, and Spokane, Washington will host the four women’s regionals this season. From April 1-3, the women’s Final Four will be held at Target Center in Minneapolis.
The “NCAA announces expansion of women’s college basketball tournament to 68 teams” is a recent announcement from the NCAA. The tournament will start in 2021 and will feature 68 teams. Reference: 2021 march madness.
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