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For those tennis junkies that love the opening few days of the NCAA Championships at the final 16 site you might want to make sure you get to either Athens this year or Winston-Salem next year because it looks like changes are coming in 2019. The NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Tennis Committee recently held a pair of teleconferences to discuss several changes to the NCAA Tournament and they have made several recommendations to the Division I Championship Committee/Competition Oversight Committee which are expected to be approved and implemented in the next 2 to 3 years.

The biggest change will be the addition of a super regional round, beginning in 2019, which would take place in between the second round and quarterfinals. Currently the 16 teams that advance past the second round go straight to the NCAA Championship Site however in this new format the higher seeded team in each section of the bracket would host a match the weekend after the second round. The 8 super regional winners would advance to the NCAA Championship Site with the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals held on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. If you are a fan of college baseball and/or softball then this format will be nothing new since both of those sports currently utilize a super regional round with eight teams at the finals site. 

As much as I personally like the current format which packs a ton of team tennis into a six-day window, I know that it’s a grind for the players, parents, fans, and tournament organizers. The weather seems to wreck havoc on the schedule just about every year so the new format would mean that no more than four total matches would be played on a given day. The reduction in matches would eliminate the need to send teams to alternate sites with those matches typically played in front of virtually zero spectators. Another huge plus would be the elimination of a Monday semifinal and a Tuesday final because unless the host institution is still alive the crowds are usually sparse at 3 p.m. on a workday.   

Below are the other recommendations which are also expected to be approved:

  • NCAA Field would be announced on the Monday following the final weekend of conference tournaments instead of on Tuesday
  • The first and second rounds would begin the weekend after selections instead of the current two weekends after selection
  • Unseeded teams (17-64) would be placed in the bracket geographically instead of in pods as is currently done

Most of these changes will have litle impact on the budget and will increase the student-athlete experience due to less class time missed and by playing in front of larger crowds. Those selected to play in the singles/doubles portion of the championships will also have to play one less match at the final site should their team advance to that point. The full report from the teleconferences are available at this link.     

So what does everyone think – good idea, bad idea, have to wait and see?

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Delaware Athletic Director Chrissi Rawak announced the hiring of Pablo Montana as the Blue Hens new men’s head coach. Montana spent the last 14 seasons at D2’s California University of Pennsylvania before taking the head coaching job at St. Leo on August 2nd but on September 20th he announced he was stepping down due to family reasons. Montana will replace Bruce Myers who stepped down in August after five months on the job to take the head coaching job at Bucknell. Adam Lawton had been the interim coach for the last four months. 

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The Atlantic Sun Conference announced on Tuesday that North Alabama will become the conference’s ninth member effective in the fall of 2018. North Alabama, which has been a Division 2 school since D2 was formed in 1972, had everything in place to make the move from D2 to D1 except for the conference invite which was made official today. The Florence based school has both men’s and women’s tennis programs with both making several NCAA Tournament appearances over the years. Florence is roughly 15 miles south of the Tennessee border and 30 miles east of the Mississippi border. The current members of the Atlantic Sun Conference are Florida Gulf Coast, Jacksonville, Kennesaw State, Lipscomb, NJIT, North Florida, Stetson, and USC Upstate

 

 

 

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