ESPN coverage of tourney next year..

[vickie1ok]

I thought this was going into effect this year which is why I was surprised so few games were on the tube in the first and second rounds. Following is an excerpt from the Daily Oklahoman:

--ESPN's decision not to televise the OU women's game against Villanova on Monday night drew some protests from Sooner fans. Local television stations also passed at airing the game, and it was carried only on pay-per-view on digital cable. ESPN had to be selective in airing only one-third of the games from the first two rounds of the tournament.

The problem becomes moot next year as ESPN and ESPN2 will carry all 63 games of the women's tournament under a new 11-year contract with the NCAA. The networks will provide regional telecasts of the first two rounds like CBS does with the men's tournament. The regional finals and semifinals will be spread over four days, and the Final Four games will be Sunday and Tuesday, instead of Friday and Sunday. --

[schooner2]

Originally posted by vickie1ok:
The problem becomes moot next year as ESPN and ESPN2 will carry all 63 games of the women's tournament under a new 11-year contract with the NCAA. The networks will provide regional telecasts of the first two rounds like CBS does with the men's tournament. The regional finals and semifinals will be spread over four days, and the Final Four games will be Sunday and Tuesday, instead of Friday and Sunday. --


The key point of this is that the regional finals and semifinals will be spread over four days. So instead of showing 8 games on Saturday it would be four one day and four the next. Why is that key? That way the last game of the day should be no later than about 9:30 EST for the West regional in the Sweet 16. Much better than 11:30 EST.

[DblT81]

The other benefit is more time before the final four games for the teams to prepare. Now, the Elite 8 is determined on Monday and then the teams have to be in the Final Four host city for media days & other events and be ready to play their opponent on Friday.

It was especially bad for teams playing the West regional. I think one year, a team won the west but couldn't get a plane home on Monday night, so they had to fly home Tues and turn around and be at the final 4 site on Wed to play on Friday or something like that. 2-3 day turnaround might be ok while playing conference games against teams and in cities you're familiar with, but to have to potentially prepare for 3 opponents in such a short time, doesn't allow for the best basketball sometimes.

[swok34]

I'm glad they are spacing it out more......

The team that really got the shaft that Dblt is referring to was Rutgers. The #1 seed was Georgia and they had a charter to and from the game. Even though Rutgers won the Regional, they had to return home on commercial flights, and Georgia still got their charter plane home.
I don't know if September 11 or the OSU tragedy has affected the way the NCAA transports the teams or not.....does anyone know?

[swok34]

I'm glad they are spacing it out more......

The team that really got the shaft that Dblt is referring to was Rutgers. The #1 seed was Georgia and they had a charter to and from the game. Even though Rutgers won the Regional, they had to return home on commercial flights, and Georgia still got their charter plane home.
I don't know if September 11 or the OSU tragedy has affected the way the NCAA transports the teams or not.....does anyone know?

[tamn8or]

As much as we ***** about women's bb coverage, I think we have it better than the men at tournament time. I was thinking about it when watching the men's games tonight - I guess, being in Iowa, that CBS decided I'm an SIU fan. I would have preferred to see the Texas game instead. At least we (wbb fans) have the opportunity to watch whatever game we want tomorrow. The whole thing even. http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/smile.gif And I know I'll have my VCR going so I can see all the games, start to finish.

Of course, if I didn't have access to cable I'd be *****ing a blue streak right now.