NATIONAL COLLEGE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 8, 2005

Lynn Parkes

LYNN PARKES: Thank you, Scottie. Good afternoon, everyone. We have had an absolutely wonderful basketball season this year. I think that we've certainly seen the game progress. We've got a tremendous amount of parity as we all have witnessed this year. It's going to make for a challenging selection process, but one that we all look forward to. Let me just make one additional comment to clarify the call today. I will not be able to speak specifically to teams or to individual teams. I'll try to answer your questions as straightforwardly as I can, but that's one area that I am a bit limited in. With that, I'll be glad to open it up and address any questions that there may be.

LYNN PARKES: That's a fair question. What we do is we don't look specifically at conferences, but we look at their overall schedule throughout the year. If they played a fairly rigorous non-conference schedule, that certainly works in their favor. So obviously because of in-conference scheduling, the required scheduling, it does have an impact. But we look at individual teams and not necessarily the conference from which they come.

LYNN PARKES: I think the catch phrase is the entire body of work. We look at their non-conference, we look at who they actually played in their conference. A lot of that is factored into the RPI. There's a lot of times when it comes down to comparing two teams, you just have to pull up their schedules and take a look at it and try to come to some resolution that way.

LYNN PARKES: Well, the staff, you guys can help me here a little bit if you'd like. Your two No. 1 teams should be in different regions. When it comes to seeding, the preference will be given to their seed order. In other words, the No. 1/No. 1 would have preference in their first and second round locations. Certainly in a regional positioning, as well.

SUE DONOHOE: This is Sue Donohoe, vice president for Division I basketball. I would say the committee could put two No. 1's in a site, depending on the seed line and geographical proximity, they could. But certainly they've got the opportunity to put one at one site and move a 1 to another site. They could do it if it lended to the bracket.

LYNN PARKES: I can honestly tell you that in my time on the committee, I don't know that we have ever, as we've gone through the process, kept a tally of how many schools we have from one conference. As a matter of fact, there have been years that the bracket is put together and we'll actually go back and look at it and say, "Wow, we've got X number from this particular conference." When you're comparing teams, you're looking specifically at who they have played and what success they have had. And there are times when it's hard to compare the two. But we actually have the ability now to go back and run a program and look at common opponents and really try to find an area that you can really evaluate the two programs equally.

LYNN PARKES: I'll tell you what, the conference tournaments this year have certainly made it interesting (laughter). I'm sure as the week goes along, there will be a few more surprises thrown at us. The conference tournament is factored, but to the extent we do have the ability to look at their last 10 games, you know, if we've got two teams that we're comparing and one team has kind of taken a slide in their last 10 games, and another team maybe has won nine out of 10, and their opponents have a similar RPI or similar abilities, certainly I think that we would probably give the edge to that team that seems to be on the upswing. You know, if a team loses in a conference tournament, are we going to knock them out of a tournament? No, I don't think so. But it is factored in there to the extent that it's part of their last 10 games that we look at.

LYNN PARKES: I don't know that the fact they played a non-Division I school has ever been an issue for us in selection. We look at what their Division I opponents have been and what success they've had against them.

LYNN PARKES: Thanks.

LYNN PARKES: I'm sorry. Your question was about getting who in the Philly region?

LYNN PARKES: I think the answer to that is all of the above. We certainly factor in their geographic region. We factor in the distance. We certainly are concerned about attendance and draw. So all of that plays a part. But that being said, one of the things that we really are conscious of, we're trying to balance out the regions, as well. All of that plays a part.

LYNN PARKES: Well, I don't know that the conference RPI itself will play into it, only from the sense that if a conference RPI is very strong, then they obviously have a lot of strong teams. That gives the teams in that particular top conference an opportunity to compete against the higher-ranked teams. From that sense, it does play a part, but none of us sit in the room and say, "Well, this team is from the No. 3 ranked conference, when comparing a team from a No. 15 ranked conference." We really try to just look at who they play and what success they've had.

LYNN PARKES: Let me say this. Let me rephrase it by saying this. The committee has probably watched a minimum, as a group, I would imagine of 1500 games or more during the year. We've watched teams progress. What may appear to be a great win early in the year may end up actually carrying less weight if it's shown through the year that a team wasn't necessarily as strong as what we originally anticipated that they might be. So all of that is factored in and we're just very fortunate that we have the ability to see a lot of basketball games and kind of make those determinations ourselves.

LYNN PARKES: Well, we have a principle, in that teams from the same conference should not meet until the regional semifinals. From that sense, we definitely would separate those conference schools out. Does that answer your question?

LYNN PARKES: Well, the seed -- we really try to hold as true to the seed position as we possibly can. The other thing that we actually try to do is prevent teams from having to travel three time zones. There are times that we just simply are not able to do that and remain true to the seeds. The guiding principle for us is the integrity of the bracket. We hold to that pretty hard and fast. If we're able to maintain that integrity, not move a team as much geographically, then we would certainly try to do that.

SUE DONOHOE: Just talking about travel and region. If we have two teams from the same national region that are in contention for the same bracket position, the higher-ranked team would stay in their national region. The first three teams that are selected from a conference are placed in different regions unless we've got an instance where we have a host institution parameter that we have to meet. And then Lynn was correct, but I would say that two teams from the same conference that are placed in the same group of four, like a five through nine, they can be placed in that same group as long as they don't meet before the regional final game.

LYNN PARKES: I think I said semifinal. I misstated that.

SUE DONOHOE: And all those principles and procedures are available on our website, if you want to go there and look at any of those principles and procedures.

LYNN PARKES: We do have a computer program that checks a lot of this for us. It's what we call Safety Nets. We will be checking those Safety Nets throughout the process.

LYNN PARKES: Mean from the --

LYNN PARKES: All of us want to get to as many neutral sites as we possibly can. I think everybody is in agreement that that's probably the fairest form of competition. By going from the 16 to the eight, it gives us more neutral sites. The other thing that we felt was that it may help us some in terms of attendance, where able to bring more institutions to one site. We actually did a study and found that there was a good potential to save some funds on travel. We may actually make it a little bit easier on teams in terms of travel. All of that was a factor in it.

LYNN PARKES: Well, I think for the biggest part it was fairly well-received because I think people understand that it provides more neutral sites.

LYNN PARKES: Well, their past success in the NCAA tournament is not really an issue for us. We look at what they've done this year. I think there's some awfully good teams out there in mid-major conferences that will receive some very strong consideration. If they haven't won their championship and got the automatic bid, I think the committee will go to great lengths to be sure that we're fair and take a good look at those particular institutions and evaluate what they've done.

LYNN PARKES: Well, when we're in a room, and we're comparing two different teams, we have the ability to pull up a sheet that will give us the teams that they played, 1 to 25, the teams that they've played 25 to 50, 50 to 100, and those over 100. If they have played ranked teams or teams in the Top 50, at least they've given themselves an opportunity to get some wins against the higher-ranked teams. So I would say that you've got to put yourself in a position to be competitive against those traditional programs.

LYNN PARKES: Well, if I get beat by two against the best team or what is the best -- highest-ranked team in the country or I get beat by 20 by No. 100, obviously I'd rather play against them even if I was going to lose that higher-ranked team. So from that sense, it is a factor.

LYNN PARKES: Well, this is the first time we've gone through the selection process with this eight teams at one site. We did go through kind of a trial run, so to speak, when we gathered in February. It presented a few challenges that were new to us. But I think it's going to give us some unique opportunities. For example, this year for the first time, we've got two institutions that are jointly hosting, Texas Tech and Texas are both hosting in Dallas. If both of those two teams advance to the tournament, then both of those teams would be placed in Dallas. That's kind of a new twist for us. But I think that we've got some wonderful sites. I think it's going to be a fun process.

LYNN PARKES: Yes. I think that's right.

LYNN PARKES: That's pretty much how it will be put together.

LYNN PARKES: Well, if they've won the regular season and they've won their conference tournament and they're from a traditionally strong conference, my guess is they would have an awfully good-looking RPI. I think maybe your question might really be if somebody loses in the conference championship, how is that going to affect them? That is what we're getting at?

LYNN PARKES: Well, there again, we'll have to sit down and look at who all they've played. Obviously if they're playing in some of the -- if they're playing the other Big-12 teams, they've played an awfully good, strong schedule. But there again, you have to go back and look at who they've played in their non-conference because that's factored in, as well.

LYNN PARKES: I don't know that point margin is an issue for us.

SUE DONOHOE: Just to clarify. The point margin is not factored into any of the RPIs. I think Lynn is right in that when the committee looks at teams, if they say Team A has a good win over Team B, it's never Team A as has a win over team B, and it was by this many points. That's not part of the discussion.

LYNN PARKES: Well, I think you've really got two issues there. The late-season injuries can be an issue. That's why institutions are required to let the committee know if that injured player is going to be available for the tournament. We ran into that exact issue last year with an incredibly talented player. We really didn't know for sure whether she was going to be back or not. We ended up basically taking the position that she was probably not going to be back. She was able to come back and it made a tremendous difference in how they progressed through the tournament. We have to take the information that we have related to injuries and factor that in as best we can. In terms of whether they lose on their home floor or an opponent's floor, we look at who they played and what their success has been. Many of these conference championships are now played at neutral sites so we've taken that home floor out of it a little bit fortunately.

LYNN PARKES: That it was on their home floor?

LYNN PARKES: Well, as far as -- let me just answer it this way. As far as the RPI is concerned, we have decided as a committee that we did not factor in home or away losses or wins as part of the computation of the RPI. Now, where they played in a conference championship, we may look at that, whether it was a neutral site or not. But I think it's a little bit dangerous to focus on one particular game and not what they've done throughout the entire year.

LYNN PARKES: Well, I will tell you that over the course of the past week I've spoken to a number of the committee members as we try to get prepared for this. The most common response has been, "Wow! Where do we start?" I do think it's going to be much more of a challenge this year than it has been in the past simply because of the parity in women's basketball. But I think that's so healthy for the game. This is what we've all been wanting for the game for a long time. In terms of the challenges, I think it will present some only because when you put 10 people on a committee, and they look at the same information, they can walk away with 10 different opinions. But I think there, too, that's the strength of the group. You know, had we not had access to the number of games that we have this past year, just looking at the information would probably be extremely difficult. We've been fortunate that we've been able to see a lot of basketball, and it's not an opinion that you formulate over a 24-hour period. You kind of work into it through the last several months.

LYNN PARKES: What you're saying is those nitty-gritty's are updated on a daily basis. A win that you had against a team that was ranked No. 40, if they move up to No. 10 in the country, you're still -- you'll get credited with a win against the No. 10 ranked team. That's where they are at that particular day when you're looking at that nitty-gritty. As far as the information and the placement on that sheet, the placement on the sheet has nothing to do with the weight of the information and where it is. All of that information that you find on that sheet is actually factored into the RPI. That's a means for us to pull the two teams up and look at them. It's more easy reading than it is anything else for us.

LYNN PARKES: Well, we try to avoid repeat match-ups if they can possibly do that. Sometimes our hands are tied. Just by moving them, we may be causing other problems for ourselves. So if we can do it and protect the integrity of the bracket and not cause additional problems, we'd certainly consider it, yes.

LYNN PARKES: Well, I told somebody earlier in the week that I think for the first time since I've been on the committee, the Top 4 teams, there's probably more of a difference of opinion right now than there ever has been going into selections. I think everybody could probably pick one or two teams, but where the other two come from, we're probably a little bit all over the map. Some of that is just simply yet to be determined. There are more games yet to be played. We'll just have to sit back and kind of talk some of that through and see what we come up with.

LYNN PARKES: Well, in terms of seeding, the seed order will be given preference in terms of geographical location. So whoever is the No. 1/No. 1 will be given preference on the No. 2/No. 1 in terms of geographical location. Does that answer your question?

LYNN PARKES: Well, I can't speak for other nine members on the committee as to exactly how much weight that would carry. It just depends on the individual. We don't have a specific principle that says if a team wins a conference tournament they're going to leapfrog over somebody else. It all depends on how an individual on the committee perceives it.

SCOTTIE RODGERS: Your 2005 Division I women's bracket will be announced at 5 p.m. eastern time Sunday, March 13th on ESPN. Lynn will conduct a post-bracket media teleconference at 7:15 p.m. eastern time on Sunday. The number to call is 888-857-6929. The confirmation number is 255849. If you have any questions regarding the 2005 championship, 317-917-6539 9 . Thank you for participating in today's call.