By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
There has been a fair amount of chatter about NCAA tennis scheduling. Frankly, it has been the subject for many years.
“The Final Four” is something that is very much part of the college sports vernacular, most notably in the college basketball as the semifinalists in the NCAA Basketball Championship event descend on one location to conclude the event and crown a champion. In hockey, they call it the “Frozen Four.”
For tennis, rather than having the final EIGHT teams descend on the NCAA Tennis Championships “Finals” site, which is how it is now, why not pair it down to four so it is consistent with other big NCAA team championship sports like basketball, hockey and lacrosse?
As the NCAA team tournament works now, it is made up of 64 teams and the first two rounds are played (usually) on the home courts of the top 16 seeded teams. The teams that emerge from those rounds then advance into a “Super Regional” – which is the round of 16 that is played (usually) on the home courts of the top eight seeded players the weekend after the first two rounds. Rather than just play one match over that “Super Regional” weekend, why not play two and have the Super Regional feature two rounds? This also will help teams with their travel budgets and be less of a travel strain for players, coaches, fans and parents. It also creates more of a “mini-NCAA tournament” atmosphere at each site with four teams competing at one location over a weekend. These first and second rounds and “Super Regionals” provided for excellent college tennis atmospheres in many venues in 2023, including the University of Georgia which drew about 3,000 fans for each of its matches on their homes courts in Athens, Georgia.
Sending only four teams to a “Tennis Final Four” also allows for better rest for players and easier to schedule in case of rain, which has been the case in the past and was the case at the 2023 event in Orlando at the USTA National Campus. Here’s how the schedule will work out:
The women’s tennis “Final Four” can be held on a Thursday with two matches, followed by the two men’s semifinals the next day on Friday. If the women’s semifinals are rained out or if only one gets played, it can always be played the following day – a rest day on Friday – on the day when the men’s semifinals are scheduled. The women’s team final would be played on Saturday and the men’s team final would be played on Sunday. I personally like the men’s and women’s team finals to be played on separate days so it gives each respective winning team their spotlight alone in the collegiate and tennis space so they get the headlines alone. Again, if the women’s final on Saturday is rained out, it can be played on Sunday. If the men’s final is affected by rain, it can played on… Monday as it would not conflict with first round matches as the first day of the individual event would only feature women’s matches.
Since there has always been the issue of players who play in the NCAA Team Tournament Final not being 100 percent physically, mentally and emotionally ready to immediately turn around the next day and play the individual tournament, what I suggest is that each respective gender tournament have a day off after their gender’s team final. So if the men’s team final is played on the Sunday, the next day, on Monday, should only have the 32 first round women’s singles matches. Then the next day, on Tuesday, the 32 men’s first round matches would be played and women would have a day off (or perhaps the women’s doubles event can start that day.)
As it stands now, the opening day of the individual event features 64 matches (32 men and 32 women) which is a long and drawn out day. Therefore you have each of the 12 match courts having five straight matches in the least being played on them. That doesn’t leave much wiggle room in case of rain or extra-long matches which would bring the matches late into the evening, which is not ideal. If it rains on this opening day with 64 matches to play and have limited (six?) indoor courts, you are in real trouble. This was the case in the opening day of the 2023 NCAA singles tournament at the USTA National Campus where early afternoon rain caused for backups and for play to move to the six indoor courts on the campus.
The men’s and women’s second round matches would then both be played on Wednesday, the round of 16 on Thursday, the quarterfinals on Friday, the semifinals on Saturday and the finals on Sunday. This is one day later that the NCAA tennis schedule for 2023 and from other years (but it is also starting one day later), but having NCAA tennis – and team finals and individual semifinals and finals on both weekend days of the entire duration of NCAA tennis at a location – will be a lot more attractive to fans who can watch NCAA tennis when off for the weekend. Fans will also be more willing to actually travel to a destination to watch if they can watch NCAA Championship tennis over two days of a weekend. As it stands now in the current 2023 NCAA schedule, there was no Division I tennis on the first Sunday and the schedule has the event ending on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, with no play on that Sunday or even Monday.
Also, one frustrating thing with NCAA tennis through the years is scheduling the men’s and women’s singles and doubles finals AT THE SAME TIME. College tennis has a passionate fan base and many want to watch BOTH FINALS. Can anyone name to me a tennis tournament of any significance that plays the men’s and women’s singles finals at the same time??
A proposed final-day schedule would be an 11 am start with a men’s or women’s doubles final – provided one of the players in the singles final is not also in the doubles final, whereas the singles final would be played before the doubles final. So you could have one doubles final at 11 am, followed by another at 1:00 and then the first singles final at about 3 pm and the final singles final at 5:00 pm. That is a great card of top quality tennis that is bound to be attractive to ticket buyers! And great value if it is all on one ticket!
This all makes common sense. When will it be implemented?
