NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 7, 2003

Cheryl Marra

CHERYL MARRA: I'm sure all of you are aware there were a few modifications in this year's championship. 3 predominant ones I will briefly address, and I will be happy to answer questions. The first one is predetermined sites. Going to that format this particular year allowed us to do a lot of different years, and certainly the committee's choice a few years ago to move in a direction that would advance this championship and allow for greater representation, particularly when it comes to those that are housing the growth of the game, I think certainly in many different ways we were able to accomplish that with predetermined sites. The second point is having all games on television. Again with predetermined sites we were able to make it possible with an addition and contract with ESPN to allow that to run smoothly as well. So having all 63 games and getting a feel for the championship this year, when you are actually able to see all of those games you have a different feel for what is happening out there. You saw a lot of different rising stars that may not have had that opportunity but for having that championship out there in all of the homes. So clearly having all of the games on TV was a big step forward on these particular championships and those student athletes who had the opportunity to play in that championship. And moving to the Sunday-Tuesday format, what allowed us to have it over four days as opposed to two. So once again we were able to let people really get into the championship; not have to be conflicted. We had much fewer conflicts or going head to head with a men's tournament that was out there as well. So those that love basketball and want to get a feel for March Madness and all that it represents were able to do that with some of the changes that we made in the women's game. The semi-finals last night put a great stamp on this particular year and the teams that are out there playing for the National Championship and we are excited for the game on Tuesday.

CHERYL MARRA: Clearly one of the things that you are trying to do when you are setting the stage for the championship is to allow people to come and have the opportunity to watch the games. So attendance is something that is certainly something that we talk about. Where can we go? Whether you are at the sites for the Top 16 or whether you are going to go to predetermined or whether you are going to go to neutral or whether you are going to go off-campus and on-campus. So yes, we certainly hope that with advanced preparation, ticket sales might increase, interest in those particular cities would increase as well. I don't at this point in time have all of the specific numbers to know exactly what those turned out to be. I will say obviously this year with a lot of different considerations out there with the economy, with the war breaking out there were some other situations that might affect those numbers. But once we get those we will take a look at that and see, if, in fact it achieved what we hoped in that particular area and what we might be able to do to move the program forward relative to attendance.

CHERYL MARRA: You know any time you change something, any time you move away from where people are comfortable, not just where they are comfortable but what they understand, there are people that are going to say, you know, it's not something that we like, we like the old and familiar, we like knowing what we were going for, and also knowing if you were a top 16 seed, the fact you would be housing what everybody understood. We moved in a different direction. That affects people's moods. And so it was something that I think you still have to take that step forward. It might not be all the way. But if you didn't take that step we wouldn't be moving in a direction to look towards neutral sites. I think over time our goal is to get to neutral sites; both coaches and the committee, because that's where you will have the next best effect on the game that you are playing on a neutral court just like what happened last night. However, there are steps that you have to take. And I think that some people don't always appreciate the process and what you have to do, whether it's finances or whether it's having enough schools to bid in different situations like that, the changes that are going on right now with investment and programs. You are right: Predetermined sites was a change. We believed as a committee it was a change and a great direction. There is no doubt it certainly helped ESPN have some advanced planning, get everybody out there, to set it up. It gave the administrators who are running those particular programs plenty of time to run a very smooth championship. I would say this is probably the fewer times we had any issues that came out there relative to being prepared. And I think that was a great advantage. Will there be changes? There is no doubt after what happened this year. This committee will really take a good hard look at what were the pros, what were the cons, what can we do to make this forward. I don't believe we will stay still forever. Clearly next year we will use predetermined sites. We have over 40 institutions that have bid on this. So I think having gone through this experience they are starting to realize what a great benefit it is to have this on your campus. So for next year it will be the same format. At our summer meetings the committee will take a look at and see if there is another step we might be able to take in the future.

CHERYL MARRA: I wish I could say a timetable. You know, I don't think that it's something that is going to sit. I think it's something that has motion, that has inertia that we are saying we got out of our comfort zone we got away from what we thought was the only way we can make this happen and we took a step. Now, when will we take that next step? We have barely gotten through this first year, we haven't had a chance to digest everything. Take a look at what is out there. But I can guarantee you, this committee is going to take some real good looks this summer to see if there is another step that we can take. We know next year. We don't know the future. I can also say we are not going to sit and say this is the best we can do or as far we can take it. Clearly not. Now, we want to say what are the next possibilities that may be out there.

CHERYL MARRA: Good question. I will tell you this. The process that we use this year for selecting teams and seating teams was the exact same process that we have always used. And I believe the committee feels very, very good about the integrity about what happened. We selected our 64 teams. Obviously you have the automatics, then the at-large, and then we just went through and seeded everybody pure natural seed, where did we believe that they belonged. And there was a very little movement relative to how we had done it any other year when you are trying to protect safety nets and where you need to be. I think what is first and foremost important and that is integrity of the bracket, did it look like it should have looked with what had been done by all 64 teams during the year? And so our next step after that was a new one. We had to then look at who was hosting and what naturally fell in the brackets, did that match up? Or were there some moves that had to happen. Remembering however, all the long we were moving for safety nets. Things like you don't have the same teams from the same conference playing in the first round. We tried to protect that as far through the tournament as we possibly can. We take it at their seeds. We are also looking at matchups from the previous year so that there are a lot of safety nets over the years that we have used to move those around. I can tell you that we were -- I can't say pleasantly surprised but felt very, very good about the fact that the process was able to take place just exactly how we had hoped and the movement that did happen, you know, in two cases, they were on their own courts, and they were not successful as a 3 seed so I don't think predetermined sites would have been the only reason for something like that happening.

CHERYL MARRA: You know I can't say that nothing is going to be a possibility when we are going to sit down and decide what direction we're going to go. I don't think we will go backwards. I think we will try to move forward. As I stated earlier, neutral sites is a goal that all of us, I think we have on our radar screen is something we want to move to. You know you can take a look at one of the things that has been thrown out there instead of 16 sites, going to eight sites, that might be another, certainly a discussion item we can look at. Any time we can move in a direction that can provide a neutral site, we had two neutral sites this year out of the get -go. That is a baseline we can see where we are going to go. I think anything will be able to be put on the table. Again, we want to move the championship forward. When you follow games like we had last night and the matchup for Tuesday you want to be able to continue to put great teams in situations that really gives a lot of integrity to the tournament. So just about anything is a possibility. But I anticipate we are moving in a direction of neutral as opposed to going in the other direction.

CHERYL MARRA: I think that is a discussion that clearly we will have this summer. Last year we had only been in a dome once. So we don't have a whole lot of experience to draw from that to make a decision as to what is best for this championship or how might we approach it. Having the second experience, I can say for myself, we haven't talked about it as a committee, has really been helpful for me to see that we now have had two dome experiences, they have been great experiences. I think for the cities that held them, for the student athletes to play in front of crowds like that. At the same time I can say we have loved our experiences in a smaller facility and we don't want to go away from that completely. We will be going back to that next year in New Orleans. We are going to take a real careful look at that. My sense will be we will continue to do both because we have the ability with the men's game to be able to do that. They create different feels. They do. It will be a discussion, and we have fortunately for those cities who bid, a combination of domes and traditional. So we will take a look at what we have out there.

CHERYL MARRA: Yes, there are a lot of different things every year. If you look around the country, teams themselves during the regular season are trying to do a variety of things to be able to get fans in and then you get to the stage of the NCAA tournament and you are continuing to try to market and promote. I think quite frankly to be honest one of the things that will probably be the biggest boost that we have on the future was the fact that everybody was exposed to all 63 games this year. Never has that happened. You can get the feel right from the beginning and all the way through. So I think those cities that are out there and the fans in those cities and those that watch women's basketball all of a sudden got a taste from beginning to end the championship. So we will capitalize off of that to be able to encourage people to come and watch those particular games up close and personal. There are a variety of strategies, different ticket packages, type things that have been put together. Obviously, the promotions, we can do a better job piggybacking off of the men's championship. The fact that we are the last game this year which has been different. It's new. Change has been something that people don't embrace the first year. There is always more marketing. Always more promotions. I think that fact that when you have more parity out there. It allows people to see that you don't go to the game because you don't know who is going to win and it might be much a matchup. Clearly that has changed. People get a sense of that and feel that. You always go back after your first year and say, okay, what do we need to do, what can we change to make it more exciting. On campuses the women's games appeal to families, senior citizens and is there different ways we can group ticket sales. It's one thing we looked at to have more flexibility in that. We got to be smart and continue to do that.

CHERYL MARRA: Maybe you can give me more information.

CHERYL MARRA: Again, if you go back to how the process is laid out. We had absolutely no prethoughts as to who was going to go where. We actually selected the 64 teams, you have to earn your way in, and then we seeded you. It was very clear this year as we were making selections how much more difficult it was to seed because in the past you might have had some natural breaks. Your ones were sitting up there pretty clear. Or your Top 16, there was a pretty clear demarcation. And then this year I will tell you it was very, very difficult to seed all the way down for the top group picks of 16's and then the middle groups, the parity was already there; it wasn't preconceived or contrived by the committee. All we did was work within that, you know. You could see everything. Ones and a two here. Clearly it's getting more and more parity relative to decide who are the ones, the 2's, the 3's and then you get in the middle; it was extremely difficult. I didn't understand at all what we are doing with the NCAA and the way we are conducting the championship of moving to predetermined sites had any affect on the seeding that we did move into that.

CHERYL MARRA: Well, I will take two different ways to approach that. First of all this will be the last year that that will appear. Anyone hosting a first or second round site will not have the opportunity to host a Regional in addition to that. We did that last year for a last time because at the time that they had been on the Regional they didn't have the opportunity the first and second round. And in order for it to be fair to the process we allowed that to happen. An FYI that has happened in the past, this is not the first year it happened. It was set up last year for that to happen as potential as well. That was not unique or different. That opportunity has always been there. But given that we will not be doing that again. Here moving forward, if you are hosting a first, second round you will not have the opportunity. So four games on one court at home will not be out there. As far as the regionals itself, as I indicated over time we would like to move to neutral sites, looking at regional sites might be something that we will discuss as the first step toward that. There are many times, when they are a fairly neutral as they have been picked over the years. Sometimes it's a product of whoever chooses to bid. We can only work with those institutions that are willing to step up and support the program and support this championship to give us those options. I think clearly over time we may do a little bit more work in trying to get other cities to bid. The excitement out there, the enthusiasm where the game is going has allowed different cities in and of themselves to say I think we would like to have a championship here. So I think you will also see us trying to move in that direction to have so neutral sites for the regionals as well.

CHERYL MARRA: I think you have to remember there is over 300 institutions that play this game. They all start at the beginning of the year with a dream to go to the NCAA tournament and as a committee we have to step back and look at the big picture. We have to step back and make sure all of those schools and institutions and those coaches have the opportunity to fulfill a dream whether it's by automatics, or whether it's -- by being an at-large team and letting all of the voices be heard. I think that's important for us as a committee to step back. We represent a wide variety of conferences, a wide variety of institutions, so I think that certainly everybody had the opportunity to give their opinions on predetermined sites and we welcomed that. I met with the coaches' group just the other day and said that now we have had the chance to go through that, any input they want to provide is something that we will look at as a committee. But I think that coaches have their role, administrators have their role, and sometimes you have to look at finances. Sometimes you have to look at what can be supported. There are lots of other things that have to be at when you are making this decision. I can certainly appreciate the coaches wanting everything setup clearly to their advantage as we all would when we go through something. There is a bigger picture. And as a committee we measure we address all of that as committee.

CHERYL MARRA: Continuing growth in Title 9 or the basketball championship?

CHERYL MARRA: Well, clearly you look at the growth of this championship, you took a look at what was going on last night, the atmosphere, enthusiasm, the opportunities of these student athletes to play in this environment. There is no doubt that we have to make that connection with Title 9 and everything that's happened surrounding that that has allowed this to happen. I think it's very, very important that we don't lose sight of that. We still have a long way to go in lots of different respects relative to Title 9. There are many campuses that can say they have done a great job. There are a lot that still have places we need to go and we need to sport them totally. Title 9 is unique if you don't look at one sport. It's a total program. That's what Title 9 stands for. The equity that's going to be out there between the total men's program and the total women's program. The fact that women's basketball has a privilege of being a show case to see what Title 9 can do and the opportunities that can be provided is something that you do take as a responsibility and you want to make sure that you continue to do it to the best you possibly can, but you can't lose sight that it's a program and we want to make sure that at every opportunity that we have to support the women who are playing the sport, to support the women who are playing sports generally, and certainly the coaches and administrators that are doing the best job they can to provide the great opportunities and great experiences as something like the Title 9 and the Final Four represents.

CHERYL MARRA: You got me on that one. I don't think that's something that the committee, as far as if you are talking points of reference relative to officiating, that is not something the committee discusses. Anything as far as the rules, anything like that, that's not within the purview of our committee.

CHERYL MARRA: All of that will come from the rules committee.

CHERYL MARRA: Well, you can't totally force an issue. However, you can certainly take some steps to broaden what's the base that's out there. I would say particular as we look at predetermined sites, it was certainly a step of faith for us to go out there and know that we would have enough institutions that was clearly -- I know when this was discussed, coaches and others had talked about will you have enough people to bid? Will this work? It's something that the committee had to not only -- we didn't wait and see but we clearly did good a good job of contacting conferences, working with institutions that we knew had a good history, putting on a championship and the sport that they have. I can say we were really pleased with the number of bids that we had with a quick turnaround once the decision had been made. I know this year when we opened it back up for the bids to be out there, we got over 40 bids. Again, because it was a new experience we have taken the opportunity to say we are now going to extend that deadline while we are very comfortable with what we have because it was new, for others to put in bids if possible. I will say we have done a good job whether it's committee members that have taken it upon themselves as well as the NCAA staff to be in touch with those people out there, to encourage them to bid as well.

CHERYL MARRA: For the first, second round?

CHERYL MARRA: I suppose it's pretty much the same. Clearly we want to have an institution. We look at the facilities. There is a guarantee relative to finances that is also something that is considered. We take a look at hotel property. We want to be sure that they have a commitment with administrative staff to be able to support the championship if they choose to do that. Getting in and out of a city. That's something that is taken into consideration. There's a past history where the sport has been. There are a wide variety of factors. Obviously, clearly one we take a look at is geographical distribution. We have to make sure as we are putting our bracket of 64 together we can't have all of the sites being in the east. We want to make sure that geographical distribution is overlaid with a variety of things that we talked about earlier; will meet the criteria that we are looking for.