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NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 2, 2007

CLEVELAND, OHIO

THE MODERATOR: Let's get started. We welcome to the podium Sue Donohoe, vice president for Division I Women's Basketball at the NCAA, as well as Judy Southard, who is the chair of this year's Women's Basketball Committee Division I. Let's go ahead and let you guys do an opening statement. Sue, if you want to go first, followed by Judy, and then we'll take questions.
SUE DONOHOE: Sure. First of all, just like to say thank you for all of you coming out this morning. Certainly we have had a championship that has been remarkable. A lot of great stories with a lot of great teams. A lot of exciting play and so we're certainly pleased with the last three and a half weeks and all that's happened in the game of women's basketball.
I think certainly that we know that we have some challenges and I believe that the Division I Women's Basketball Committee, the NCAA, is ready to address those challenges and continue to grow our game. Because truly we have something that's very valuable. We have got student-athletes that play at the highest level. That compete on the floor. That are excellent student-athletes and great role models. So it's our commitment to continue to grow the game both at the championship level and at the institutional level and at the conference level.
I'll let Judy make a few comments and then we look forward to your questions and dialog.
JUDY SOUTHARD: Thank you. And some of this will to some degree echo what Sue just said. I had an opportunity to visit with the Coach's Association this morning and I shared some of the same comments with them so I'm going to kind of give some opening remarks and certainly we'll take your questions. We appreciate the opportunity of course to be here and first thing that I would like to do is certainly congratulate the Cleveland folks for what a great job they have done, the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, the organizing committee, the Mid-American Conference, as well as Cleveland State University of course served as our host institution. All of the folks at the Quicken Arena, these are only a few of the people who have helped make this truly a memorable championship. And I think we're all looking forward to the championship game tomorrow night.
With that said, let me just kind of turn to what we're really here about and that's to talk about women's basketball and our championship. And I think I can say that in general we're pleased with the competitive environment of our championship. As Sue said, we have some very solid performances by teams that you would expect solid performances from and then of course we had the unexpected strong performances by some teams that gave us a exceptional ride through somewhat of a dramatic and a magical tour of the bracket this year. There was some great stories to be had with some of the games that we saw this year and all in all I think that it's been a great championship event from start to finish.
I would like to say that we understand that we're going to have some questions about attendance and I would first want you to know that our attendance actually increased by 25,000 fans at our first and second round sites this year. As compared to the attendance figures for last year.
Now we are concerned of course with the fact that the attendance dropped some at the Regional level. We have had to take a step back though and realize a little bit about of what happened at the Regional level. And we're trying to some degree evaluate what the elimination of Duke Texas A & M and Stanford may have meant to the attendance figures at Greensboro, Dallas, and Fresno. And of course what might have been if those teams had in fact advanced. But we do know that we have got a lot of challenges ahead of us. We certainly are working hard as a committee and as a group to do the best we can to grow our game and to try to do a better job of cultivating the casual fan and finding or cultivating those folks who will be women's basketball fans. Not just fans of a certain program. And I think probably therein lies one of the of the greatest differences between the men's and women's game right now is that we do have basketball fans on the men's side, whereas on the women's side we tend to still have more fans of the specific institutions as opposed to fans of our game.
This is the 15th consecutive year that we have had a sell out. And we have sold out 16 out of the 26 years that we have hosted this championship. And overall of the 26 year history of the event we have averaged 5,000 people per session. Which we feel like is certainly not a figure we want to stay stagnant, but we do feel like it's a impressive figure at this point in time in our history.
The other thing that we know is a issue for some of you and it is an issue for our coaches and our fans are our TV times start times, our game order. And we certainly expect to have some questions about that and we'll be happy to answer those. I would like to tell you that the NCAA national office the Division I women's basketball and ESPN all collaborate to try to determine the game times and the game orders for all rounds of our championship. And obviously there is a careful balance and strategy at that that we must strike in doing that. We are, of course, trying as diligently as we can to avoid as many head to head conflicts with men's basketball as we possible can. And that certainly creates a lot of challenges for us. But we are, we do spend a lot of time on that. And incidentally, this past year we only had three situations in which the home team played a start time or had a start time after nine o'clock p.m. on their home court and that was at Pittsburgh and in the first round and then at Connecticut in both the first round and second round. That 9: 30 window and trust me, I understand the late window, because I was in Dayton for the regionals there and then stayed up until 1: 30 in the morning to watch LSU play before I got up at 4 to catch a plane the next place I was going. So I certainly understand as a fan of the game what the TV windows are doing to it us and we certainly know that we have got some challenges there and we're going to take plenty of time to study that a and work on that. At this time I'll just open the floor for questions and Sue, if you'll help me and jump in we'll both take questions.
THE MODERATOR: Let's open it up for questions.

Q. You had mentioned that you met with the coaches association. We have within been hearing from several coaches who are concerned about what the attendance has been. What did they say to you and did they have any suggestions for the problems with attendance?
JUDY SOUTHARD: We met with them this morning at 8:30 the Coaches Association, and we certainly had a representative group there. We had some people there that certainly are very interested. I will tell you though we did not get a lot of questions from them which did surprise us very much. We pretty much, I pretty much went over the same type of things that I just finished going over with you. We had a few questions from the floor from them as it related to some of the issues regarding the selection seeding or bracketing process, but honestly and truly we didn't really get a question about that from them.
SUE DONOHOE: If I could add to that, one thing as we were meeting with the coaches this morning we told them that we really wanted to have some good open dialog. And they did ask a question to us about if the committee would consider selecting eight cities throughout the country that are strong hot beds of women's basketball, and taking the first and second rounds into those cities and keeping them therefore several years to try and build some equity into the market.
And certainly I think that we're very much interested in doing that. We are doing that at the Regional round level. Greensboro was a pilot test for us. We have pilot tested out at Stanford. We had Greensboro this year as a Regional there going to serve as a Regional site for us next year and hopes to building that equity in that, in and building women's basketball NCAA women's basketball in that market. Same thing at Stanford we're piloting that program. So that's something certainly that the coaches brought to the table this morning that I think we would be very interested in having further discussions about.

Q. For either of you, can you talk about what ESPN is doing tomorrow with that total coverage where all its not network is going to have something on it and do you think that maybe that's going to create a little bit more interest for the game?
SUE DONOHOE: I think it's a great sign of commitment by ESPN. Certainly this is the first and only ever women's sporting event that they have done the full circle coverage on. And to, if you had the chance to watch the Miami-Florida State football game, and look at the different platforms that they used and the way that they activated those platforms, it was great coverage for that football game. And again, this is the first time they have done this for a women's sporting event. So that shows the commitment that ESPN has to try and promote market and showcase this championship. And we're very fortunate that they have elected to do that. It has brought in a lot of interest from a lot of different areas and we're excited to see it put into place tomorrow night. We think it's a great initiative for us and we're appreciative of ESPN bringing it and making it available to us.

Q. You do have that all the coverage from ESPN you have now on the crawl it says NCAA M, and W, as opposed to basketball and then well the little women over here, so that's what they changed.
SUE DONOHOE: That did not go unnoticed.

Q. There are lots of things, Title IX clearly is here to stay so it's not desire. But so you get all this, you get this platform, all the games on ESPN, here's your big stage, and any concern at all about how it looked last night 50 turnovers in the second game, lowest score LSU 35 points by nine points the lowest total score ever in a women's Final Four. I asked Pat and Vivian and they both said, well, it's defense and the game and blah, blah, blah, I understand all that, any concern though, this is your big showcase and it looked pretty kind of ragged out there.
JUDY SOUTHARD: Well that's a tough question. I don't want to sound trite when I say this, but it is what it is. We don't have anyway to balance guessing or trying to know in advance. We don't have the crystal ball here that's going to really tell us. Those of us who love basketball and who know basketball and have been involved in it a long time, there are things that you can find in those games that were really fun to see. I just thought the Rutgers kids absolutely shot the lights out and it just, if you weren't -- I was sitting there dying all night. Obviously, because I'm from LSU, but just as a person who loves basketball, to watch what those kids did from the 3-point line and the way their crowd just rows to the atmosphere in the Arena it was electric during that game, even though it was a, you know, not a real pretty game in some regards. But I think that we can find great things in our game and I probably haven't answered that question for you but as I said it really is what it is. There's really not a whole lot -- we can't predict how that's going to be from year to year and certainly we would love for everything to be perfect from both sides, and a down to the wire, 72-71 final. But I don't think you can anticipate that and I would just simply say that we, our game is growing and it's getting better and better and I think if nothing else the quality of the student-athletes was certainly on center stage last night because there was some great young women athletes out there competing.

Q. The fan base and even some of the game's most prominent coaches including Coach Summitt and Coach Hatchell we did this too soon in terms of predetermined eight sites. And so people keep saying is there any chance of bringing back 16 home sites. Can we, should we just put that to rest that it's never going to happen or is there any chance in the future that might happen if the attendance doesn't pick up in the next few years?
JUDY SOUTHARD: I don't think I would -- I would never say never. Because I think that part of our mission as a committee and the mission of the staff at the NCAA that works with women's basketball is to do everything within our power to try to find the best solutions to what we need to do to grow our game and make our game attractive to the public and to again as I said a few moments ago, to grow the fan base to a level where people enjoy watching women's basketball whether it's Duke playing North Carolina, Tennessee playing LSU or Stanford playing Connecticut.
So I don't think we would ever say never. Because we are in dialog every time we sit down as a group to meet we're in dialog about what do we need to do? We are in the business of wanting to accept any and all creative ideas for what we can do better for our game. And I told the coaches that this morning. I said just come to us with whatever idea you have. It may seem like it's off the charts, but we will sit down and we will talk about it. Because what we want to do is and it's a trite, I said it over and over, we want to grow our game. I think we have to be very careful that we don't lose sight of where we are in our history. And I used this analogy before, you got to crawl before you walk. You got to walk before you run. And you got to run before you can make the track team and run the 50 yard sprint. And if you want to go back and compare our game to the men's game, we are still somewhat in our youthful stage. And I think that what has happened to our game in the last ten years and everything that surrounds our game is absolutely tremendous. But we are still a very young sport by all measures from an historical perspective of where we would compare with our men's counter part.
SUE DONOHOE: I would add to that, I think in -- and we shared this with our coaches did -- and certainly with our membership. Folks are not going to wake up on Tuesday morning after Selection Monday and say, you know what, I'm going to become a women's basketball fan today. That's a developmental process. And it's got to start at the grass roots level. It's got to extend into the conference level and then certainly at the championship level. I give a lot of credit to our host sites they work extraordinarily hard for about 18 months to prepare to market and prepare for the championship rounds. I think that we have got to continue to work at that institutional level to develop that fan base so that when a institution has the opportunity to participate in the championship that fan base is there and that fan base will travel with them.
To talk a little bit about a commitment that we have made from a NCAA standpoint, as many of you know Doctor Miles Brand pulled together a discussion group a ad hoc committee, if you would, of the brightest and best minds of women's basketball. We brought coaches to the table, we brought media representatives to the table, we brought administrators to the table to talk about what are for or five real key initiatives that we can look at that would possible help us to grow the game. And one of the initiatives that remains on the table that we feel confident that we'll put into place over the next months is a matching grant program. That we can work with our conferences and our institutions to grow that fan base at that grass roots level. Because we know if we grow at the grass roots level we grow at the championship level and vice versa. And that's got to be a collaborative effort for all of us in the women's basketball community. Certainly you as media representatives do a great job of helping us promote the game, but as we continue to grow, it's going to be a effort for all of us all the stake holders in the game.
JUDY SOUTHARD: Let me say one more thing about that. The only reason I think that, not the only reason, one of the reasons I think that we're so intent to continue to try what we're doing is because we feel like it's one of the only ways that we can grow our new fan base. I'm not sure that it would serve our game well to just be isolating ourselves to the five or six communities in the country that have demonstrated their support for the game because then we're not really spreading ourselves out and exposing our game to potentially new fans. So there may be a delicate balance in there and we may have to look and find that balance, but certainly again repeating what I said a moment ago, I think we're open to any and all creative solutions or suggestions for ways to solve our problem.

Q. How long are you locked into this format and could you possible consider moving the dates to not conflict with the men's tournament, go earlier or go later?
SUE DONOHOE: That's another initiative that remains on the table with this discussion group. There are a lot of pieces to that puzzle. But I think that from a women's basketball community I think it's worthy of consideration and worthy of good thoughtful discussion. Right now for our first and second rounds regionals, we are named through 2009, 2010. For the women's Final Four we're named for 2011. Where we are with that discussion and dialog, certainly the discussion group has spent a great deal of time discussing it. We have sent information out to our conferences asking contractually what are your obligations right now, how far are you out, what is the format of your tournament, men's and women's together, men's and women's in the same city, playing at the same time in different venues. So we asked all those questions. We compiled the responses to those questions and the discussion group will gather again here in the next several weeks via tele-conference to say, here's what we have learned, here's what the status is of our conferences and their conference championships, now what other information do we want to gather and what feedback do we need to receive? The other piece that we still have to do from our championship perspective is to talk with our first and second round Regional hosts, Final Four hosts for the next years to say, if, if we were to make this kind of change, what is your availability, what's the hotel availability, so those are a lot of pieces that we need to get a lot of answers to. The other things that are really critical about this decision aside from is this the thing that will help us grow the game give us some opportunities from for us to visit with ESPN about some television windows and work on the end venue attendance the other pieces that we have to look at a decision like this is going to impact the timing of conference championships, it's going to impact the timing of practice dates first practice date it's going to impact the first playing date. It's also going to impact the recruiting calendar. So it's not a very simplistic evaluation of the issue, it's pretty complex. But I would say this: I think every one believes that it's very much worthy of the discussion and consideration.

Q. Culture and all these issues, since we're on that topic, the use of the adjective lady, they don't of course call them the Gentleman Vols, and it's 2007. And with all due respect to the Regional aspect and the branding, Vivian just said you know let's drop the lady and play ball. Would there be any thought at all, especially in light of what's gone on with mascots, of having the NCAA say, this is 2007 and let's just be Volunteers or Wildcats or whatever and drop the lady thing.
SUE DONOHOE: I would say this: I think certainly Tennessee and what they have done with their branding of their women's program, it certainly is a very, very strong brand. There's no doubt about that. I think that through our governing structure and membership if there was some push from our membership up to the national office to consider that and have any kind of discussion through our committee structure, certainly that would be the appropriate way that it would come to us so it would have to be something certainly that would be driven from our membership up to be activated and discussed on a national platform.

Q. Some coaches have made the case that because of ticket prices and TV times you're driving away women's basketball's core audience senior citizens and families with young children. What are your thoughts on that?
JUDY SOUTHARD: Not sure I disagree with that. And again as I said, we have got a tremendous television partner with ESPN. I think the same coaches who are concerned about that would also tell you in the next breath that TV exposure is extremely important to them as they build their programs, market their programs and of course it's a very valuable recruiting tool for them.
So again, I think that the challenge lies with us working very closely in concert with our partners from ESPN. There's a unique partnership there because the ESPN viewing demographics are obviously quite different and I don't think I'm off base when I say this, are quite different from what we characteristically consider the demographics of our women's basketball fans to be. And again it's a delicate balance and it's a balance that we have to work very hard to try to achieve. We are seeing some meeting of the minds there. We have in recent years this past year particularly have worked closely with ESPN on reducing the number of late windows. We had late -- we had less late windows this year than we had in previous years. We certainly -- and they're very interested in listening to us and they're very interested in trying to work with us. At the same time keeping in mind that ESPN is a business, that they have to make decisions that are in the best interests of what they have invested in our game also. So I know I'm -- I -- it may sound like double talk, but again it is what it is. It's a delicate balance that we are continuing to work closely with ESPN in trying to come to grips with that concern.

Q. You talk about growing the women's game and when you look at the LSU situation, with Pokey Chatman and the Penn State situation with Coach Portland, is there anything that's good that comes out of that for the coverage of women's basketball because it's been covered so much even though they're negative stories?
SUE DONOHOE: I think certainly in every sport and in every probably in every walk of life there's things that can have aim pact on our sport. I think that it's incumbent upon the stake holders of women's basketball to determine how do we turn something that might be a negative into a positive. And how do we learn, how do we educate from experiences and situations that might arise. I think that the WBCA made a very, very strong statement on their web site about the role of coaches as mentors and role models. And I think they feel very, very strongly about that. So as a women's basketball community, I think certainly the situations that might occur whether it's on the Penn State campus or LSU campus are best left to be handled by those institutions and their administrators. But then those of us that are in the women's basketball community must find ways to continue to educate, to continue to help our young professionals learn and grow and serve in the capacity and the role that they should.
THE MODERATOR: Sue and Judy, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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