NATIONAL COLLEGE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 9, 2004

Cheryl Marra

CHERYL MARRA: Well, you test my recollection already to begin with. Obviously, when we take a look at this, the first thing we do is select the teams and then seed the teams, and the last thing we do is place them into the bracket in an assigned site. So a lot of that will be determined once those teams are selected and how they are paired up and each year can be a little bit different.

CHERYL MARRA: I think this year more than any year I can remember being a part of this committee, injuries are going to play a fairly large role in the selection, particularly in the seeding process. In addition to Minnesota, there's a few other schools out there that have had some injuries and some may come back and some may probably not. I think you're absolutely right. One of the things that we have that take into account is how these injuries might affect their seeding. Each institution is a little bit different. Obviously Minnesota lost a great player when Lindsay Whalen went down and she's been out now for a few games. We have had the opportunity to see Minnesota play without Lindsay Whalen. We have seen Minnesota play with Lindsay Whalen. Obviously one of the big questions is: Will she be back, when will she be back and how might that play into the team at that point in time. All of those are things we would consider as a committee, and make that determination how injuries are going to affect each of these teams as we begin to seed the teams.

CHERYL MARRA: Good question. Appreciate the opportunity to answer that. As I indicated earlier, the thing that's really, really important to those of us on the committee is to protect the integrity of the process, and the integrity of the bracket. So, the first thing we do is put the teams into the Championship. The second thing we do is seed them. In terms of if they are hosting or not, that doesn't come into play until after that process starts. So the last part of your question: Will they get any slack? Absolutely not. They must get in on their merits and they will be seeded on the merits of what they have done relative to all of the other institutions out there. In terms of how many are going to get in from the Pac 10, your guess is as good as mine. At this point in time, everybody is up for consideration. It's a tough race out there this year. It's an exciting race this year. So I'm not even going to venture the number that might get in from the Pac 10. But if you tune in on Sunday, I could give you the specifics..

CHERYL MARRA: You don't go specifically by weight. Obviously one thing we do that is the RPI, which factors in all of those points that you've addressed. It factors in the strength of schedule for non-conference. It factors in strength of schedule during the conference, the wins and losses they have had with each of those opponents within their schedule, they are all factored in at some point. For those that tend to be on the bubble, each of us may look at those a little differently. What is more significant, winning on the road what might be more significant than a non-conference schedule and how you did against that. It's real hard for me to extrapolate for each of the ten committee members how they are going to look at that specifically. But there are all of that's factors, and obviously that is a tool that's been very, very important to the committee.

CHERYL MARRA: That was one great game they had down there. This season they have had a great rivalry. The thing about this championship, you have teams like Penn State and Purdue going head-to-head in their Conference Championship. You see what they have done throughout the season and it will be a challenge. Really, we'll sit down and talk through, what does it all mean. You have to look at the entire season. That's important to us. But the point is, it's a race that has been exciting through the year, and the committee will take a look at them very seriously.

CHERYL MARRA: Obviously, we can't keep everybody close to home. It does come into play after we put teams in the brackets. I think it would be accurate to say when we do bracket them, that not when we seed them, but when we bracket them, we do try to be able to have the fans have the opportunity to come and watch those teams. In some cases teams are not geographically close at all and at other points in time, we have other factors where we are going to place teams that are outside of their region. We do try whenever possible to have teams play as close to home as we can.

CHERYL MARRA: I'll tell you what, sometimes I've looked and teams will say, no thank you, I don't want to be a No. 1, let somebody else slide in. It's been a great year in terms of taking a look at who are our top seeds. I think this year for the first time at least in my experience, we have more teams that have an opportunity to be a No. 1 than we have ever had, and that's a great thing for the committee to have. There's still games to play. Quite frankly, two great tournaments going on yesterday, we have a few more coming up right now. Until all of the teams are in and the games have been played, I don't think any of us can say who those four No. 1s going to be.

CHERYL MARRA: Sometimes that can be a little tricky. Obviously, their overall record is what we look at. And that's obviously what is factored into the RPI. We want to see how they stand from the beginning to the end of the season. Each team is probably a little unique in how difficult their conference was. A stronger conference with a losing record might look very different than somebody who is not nearly a strong conference with a losing record, particularly if they played a difficult non-conference. If they went out and played in a tough conference, so they might have a losing record in the conference but they always went out and played a very tough non-conference season and did extremely well, I think all of that is something that we need to take a look at. So if you thought a losing record precludes from you having an opportunity to get into the tournament, that's not true. I think, again, we can step back and say what else did they do during the entire season and how strong a particular conference they are playing in, because I think all of that becomes important factors to look at.

CHERYL MARRA: Fair question. I think last year, as you're all aware, we had predetermined sites, so geography was something that came into play and we were challenged with, do you move team to get them geography closer. The thing that certainly came out for us was the integrity of the bracket and seeding certainly exceeded trying to make sure that they are geographically located. However, we do have the ability within the process to move seeds one line. And on occasion, we may choose to do that, and obviously, you have to the ability to move down within a line and protect the seeds and where we can protect the s-curve as much as we possibly can. But if you are moving them across a line, we might take a little more liberty there than we would to move them up or down the line.

CHERYL MARRA: Now, when you were talking about -- were you talking specifically about Houston?

CHERYL MARRA: I can honestly tell you, we have never even discussed that. When we are looking at institutions and we do our first brush, looking at teams that ought to be in the championship in the tournament, when we look at, for example, tomorrow night we are looking at putting our top 64 teams in. I can't imagine I can tell you, I have never factored that, yes, they have been in a tournament and how have they done. That is not a consideration I had never even stopped to think about.

CHERYL MARRA: When it comes to seeding, you know, again, we work off of the merits of what they have done in a particular year. If you have the talent to go out there and achieve what some of them might have achieved against a No. 3 or a No. 2 in a particular year, that's all we care about. We care about what you are doing or rewarding you for what you have done. Your history really doesn't come into play at all.

CHERYL MARRA: Well, I can clearly say that we do take a look at -- within all of the other factors that we look at in the games, and that I guess speaks to momentum which you have already talked about. At same time, if you are looking at a team specifically like Minnesota, there might be a reason for that momentum or for that shift particularly in the last ten games, so we might talk about that as well. There's no doubt some teams get hot. Some teams really, if you're a young team and you have been playing throughout the year and you start to gel and all of a sudden you are on a roll, you are playing extremely well, your last 10, 12 games that's something that we are going to take a look at. Not outside of the context of what you've done in the regular season, but I think how you've done towards the second half is something we do pay attention to.

CHERYL MARRA: Chattanooga has had a great year, and good for them. That's exciting, I know for those of you that are down there and have an opportunity to host. That's always great for a program and great for the town, as well. They have done a great job this year. And as far as where they are going to be seeded, I think I'll be honest, longest home winning streak is not one of the criteria we are looking at when we are selecting a seeding. However we will look at their total program. Again, the question was asked before: Do we look at what they have done historically as it factors in. No, we look at what they have done this particular year and how that's going to sit next to the other teams under consideration, particularly when it comes to seeding.

CHERYL MARRA: I will say that we do have some safety nets that we take a look at when we are putting our bracket together, and that is that they will not play a conference opponent in the first round and not just from the previous year. As a matter of fact, Scottie, you're on the phone, you might be able to go through some of our safety nets that might give them more insight.

CHERYL MARRA: Oh, relatively to the coaching. You know, that's not something that we really take a look at seriously. We have our safety nets. And to be honest with you, there are so many things that lay on top of as we are putting this bracket together. And I'll go back to the first thing we try to do, is protect the integrity of the bracket. And we want to make sure that that is protected first and foremost from the seeding. And obviously, again we are going to look at the entire season as we break it down and not let something like that overshadow the work that the committee has done.

CHERYL MARRA: I tell you what, you're giving our committee an awful lot of credit to be able to match-up where all of these coaches are moving every single year. It is not something that we consider. Obviously the best match-ups are those teams that are playing extremely well at this point in time. And again, protecting the work that the committee does to make sure that they are seeded appropriately and they have a chance to play if we can potentially geographically put them where their fans can up support them, too. But to match-up coaches, you're giving us an awful lot of credit and that's really not something that we have ever considered.

CHERYL MARRA: Good question. Obviously, last year was the first time, and I'm assuming you're talking about for a second round site. First time we sat down and took a look at going to predetermined sites one of the things that is important to us in making consideration is somewhat distribute the sites by region. We want to make sure that we have hosts in each particular time zone, and certainly it would play well when it comes to television viewing, as well. So we also look at the site itself; have they hosted in the past, what kind of job have they done, do they have the hotels that we are going to need.

CHERYL MARRA: Well, obviously, again, we look at the entire season and try and break that down. There are some schools that might, in fact, win the league championship and win the conference tournament. You can look at this one way and look at somebody who won one won and not the other. You don't just speak to that specifically. You can say we are going to take all of the league champions this year. That's not how we consider that. Again we are looking at the total picture and what do they do during the rest of the season. And so far there have been several schools that I can think of right now that have won the regular season and have not necessarily won their particular tournament. That's something that we will discuss in terms of, you know, how they have played of late. But clearly, looking at the total picture is what's going to really help us to come to the conclusion of where we are going to seed them.

CHERYL MARRA: Let me bring you up-to-date on that. At the present time this year, we will have 16 teams, first and second round sites, and then the four regional sites obviously in the Final Four. Next year for the first time, we will be moving to eight sites. We will go through the site process as far as selection for those eight first and second round sites. We've already been through the bid process whereby we've had institutions bid on 2005 and 2006 for second-round sites. We have done a preliminary look at that. We have gone from 40 schools who were interested down to 30 schools. Right now they are preparing the paperwork significant to submitting their bids with the numbers in. And come May, the subcommittee will make recommendations to the full committee for the eight sites for 2005 and for the eight sites for 2006. And at the summer meetings, those sites will be selected. Again we will take a look at the criteria that I had outlined earlier in addition looking to the commitment of the institution toward women's basketball as we are making those decisions to choose those sides. So beginning next year for the first time, we will have only eight sites for the first and second round for women's basketball.

CHERYL MARRA: Well, remember I have only one vote. The fact of the matter is, we are all looking very carefully at those top seeds.

CHERYL MARRA: Remember, what we are going to do, as we are making steps in the women's game, we've gone from the 16 to the higher seeds to predetermined sites to eight sites. One of the things that we are trying to remember along the way is we need to bring our fans with us as we are making these particular changes. And so as we are doing that, we do need to take a look at geographically, what's best. Again trying to protect the integrity of the bracket, where, in fact, can we send people within their state and try to be able to geographically allow those schools to be followed by their fans. I think that's something that certainly we will take a good look at when they are trying to make these decisions, because part of the student athlete experience is having the people there to support them.

CHERYL MARRA: You know, that's an interesting question. And my first year on the committee, I had heard that, you know, I know on the bracket at the end, they say how many are in there from each conference. And I remember the experience I had, it wasn't until we had already done the bracket and seeded everybody and we even went back to take a look at, wow, how many were from each conference. So I can tell you as we are going through this process, we really don't look at conferences as much as we do institutions. Now, as I say that to address your specific question, does it matter what the RPI is of a particular conference, absolutely it does. But that's factored into the total RPI. It's never drawn out just by itself specifically. But clearly, when we are looking at the total RPI, the RPI of the conference is a big factor because that determines week-in and week-out who each person is playing. But I can also tell you, there is no tally cast relative to how many are coming from each conference. Actually think it's ESPN that puts it out there.

CHERYL MARRA: No, I don't think I would. Again, we are looking at the institution and what they have done from top to bottom within their schedule and within who has played. We've really never broken it down specifically like that.

CHERYL MARRA: Yeah, I think, you know, there's probably -- when people take a look at women's basketball, clearly it was to get people closer to the ones that were out in the lead, but also to get the middle closer as well, and I think we have been able to do both of those this year. You don't have one that's just an odds-on favorite at this point in time. You have multiple losses by every team that's looking to be a potential No. 1 at this point in time. And then you have the middle that's clearly much, much closer than it's ever been. The question was asked earlier, you have some conferences out there that might not have been your 1, 2,3 conference that are doing extremely well relatively to the institutions that they have. So I think you've clearly got the middle closer than it's ever been, and you've got more teams that you have under consideration for those top two lines.

CHERYL MARRA: Well, you keep flipping me back and forth. As far as the advantages for the eight sites, first of all, for a team atmosphere, it's great to have eight institutions at one place, and clearly you have cut down on the administration of this particular championship having only eight sites concentrating on all of the details that need to be done, your ticket sales are all going to come out of one particular site, eight times instead of 16. Clearly I think it's going to be great for our television partner, ESPN in terms of talent, in terms of production, there's a financially -- I think there's a lot to be said by moving institutions to eight sites versus 16. And so I think it's something that as we were taking a look at, probably one of the big factors that at least institutions are now playing on a home court, so you just neutralize eight institutions potentially depending on how things work out this particular year. So you've gone to a more neutral environment. You've gone to a more, you know, tournament atmosphere, administratively streamline things and you certainly allow the talent and our television partners to find a way to reduce some of the things they are trying to do, and also include new things they might take a look at doing, so we are excited about all of that.