Rumored NCAA Changes

Nostradamus

Bionic Poster
the fb group:

1) is starting to blow up - nice work evan king and van overbeek, hopefully twitter and fb lead to some real organized opposition, though gonna be tough to overcome the monster that is the NCAA

2) is hilarious - feddie you'll be glad to know gibbs and ahn have some of the funniest posts to date - i do not oppose their suggestion to put female college tennis in bikinis to follow the NCAAs attempt to gain more fans

who is feddie ? but anyway, i second that opinion by Gibbs. I think super short pants and bikini top would go far. with few exceptions of fat girls in NCAA. No offense.

and Cheerleaders in changeover during men's matches would also go far.
 

The Wreck

Semi-Pro
I feel like a lot of the posters in this thread aren't actually college players, or current juniors...I don't think you guys realize that a hard fought 8-game pro set followed almost immediately by a best of 3 set match can be quite tiring sometimes. A match that ends with a super-breaker can be just as special as a 3 set match. I don't think the doubles should be shortened, anything shorter than an 8 game pro set would be silly. But, I think a super-breaker would add a lot more tension and excitement to the game, as well as shortening matches. It would also give lower ranked teams that don't have 6 blue chips in their lineups a better shot at pulling off an upset if the "better" team was having an off day.

But under the proposed rules, this situation would be made even MORE difficult. While the lengths of the matches and the 3rd set are being reduced, so is the time between doubles and singles (to 5 minutes) and eliminating individual warmups.

There's literally nothing redeeming about this proposed plan.
 

mikej

Hall of Fame
The facebook group is a great read by the way. Some funny back and forths between the Pepperdine folks.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/400386836676614/

yeah they're hilarious

my favorite posts go to:
-kristie ahn for the suggestion to have a lobbing competition during the ncaa final to make it as long as possible and stick it to the NCAA
-the dude with the academic decathalon a la billy madison suggestion for a tiebreaker
 

mikej

Hall of Fame
ps some of the posters are saying that another change (one year delayed) will be changing the event to super regionals and then just the final 4 teams at the same site???

jesus, destroy the awesomeness that is the top 16 teams in the country congregating at the same site as well???

i'm having a hard time figuring out how to destroy college tennis more, NCAA took all the good ideas
 

The Wreck

Semi-Pro
ps some of the posters are saying that another change (one year delayed) will be changing the event to super regionals and then just the final 4 teams at the same site???

jesus, destroy the awesomeness that is the top 16 teams in the country congregating at the same site as well???

i'm having a hard time figuring out how to destroy college tennis more, NCAA took all the good ideas

That made me really mad too. After spending almost the entire two weeks going to the tournament this year, I can say it's one of the coolest things in college sports (at least to tennis fans). Would be a shame to kill that whole thing.

And NONE of these things really make college tennis any more marketable for television. Just can't understand the logic.
 

Satsuma Illini

Semi-Pro
It's all money based decisions probably. College tennis isn't making any money, so the NCAA, which only cares about what will bring them more money, is going to sit down and carve up the sports that don't make money to the bare bone and act like they are doing everyone a favor.
 

The Wreck

Semi-Pro
It's all money based decisions probably. College tennis isn't making any money, so the NCAA, which only cares about what will bring them more money, is going to sit down and carve up the sports that don't make money to the bare bone and act like they are doing everyone a favor.

Doing things that will ultimately discourage participation and fan interest in college tennis is NOT helping in the money department.

I take that fan interest part back actually. If you don't like going to watch tennis now, making the 3rd set a tiebreaker isn't going to convert you into a huge fan. Most people only stay for doubles and the first part of the singles matches. That's a great idea. Let's shorten the one part that they can actually count on some people to come watch....
 

Satsuma Illini

Semi-Pro
Doing things that will ultimately discourage participation and fan interest in college tennis is NOT helping in the money department.

I take that fan interest part back actually. If you don't like going to watch tennis now, making the 3rd set a tiebreaker isn't going to convert you into a huge fan. Most people only stay for doubles and the first part of the singles matches. That's a great idea. Let's shorten the one part that they can actually count on some people to come watch....

I agree. But when did the NCAA actually do something that HELPED college tennis. I need reminding because I can't really remember...
 

kme5150

Rookie
I'm a former player. I played in the stone age when all matches were best of 9, 2 out of 3 sets for both singles and doubles. If we got tired in a match and lost on fitness, you had heck to pay in conditioning the next few days. Not one player/teammate cried about it. There was no such thing as a match TB, we used polyester string (we used Kevlar) and I wore canvas Nike's because they were free.

Back then DI played No-Ad. Ask UGA about No-Ad and their loss to Lander. Then ask why they don't play No-Ad any more.

A little history may just serve you well along with some humility.

Very well said
 
The tv audience will eventually catch up to our great sport at the college level. Don't change the structure of how the match evolves by hoping for a tv contract. Play doubles last and make it worth 3 individual points with 8 game pro sets. No doubles if up 6-0 or 5-1 in the dual. When players are available after a ten minute break they start their doubles instead of waiting for the longer singles matches to finish. Doubles to determine the outcome will give college tennis a different flavor-as well as the insane cheering-than pro tennis. So will the huge rivalries!
 
The tv audience will eventually catch up to our great sport at the college level. Don't change the structure of how the match evolves by hoping for a tv contract. Play doubles last and make it worth 3 individual points with 8 game pro sets. No doubles if up 6-0 or 5-1 in the dual. When players are available after a ten minute break they start their doubles instead of waiting for the longer singles matches to finish. Doubles to determine the outcome will give college tennis a different flavor-as well as the insane cheering-than pro tennis. So will the huge rivalries!

I agree with this. I think this would be a very good change that many more people could agree with. Why not first singles, then doubles? But I still think doubles should worth 1 point. And if the match is decided before the doubles, then is more of an option between coaches if they want to play it or not.
 
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SoCal10s

Hall of Fame
who are these NCAA people who are making these decisions? they sound like USTA clowns doing their dirty work again..
 

kme5150

Rookie
These are the committee members as stated on the bottom of the document:

Cathy Beene, Georgia Southern University - Athletics' Senior Woman Administrator & former coach
Men's Team - No National Ranking
Women's Team - No National Ranking

Tad Berkowitz, University of Arizona - Head Men's Coach
Men's Team - No National Ranking
Women's Team - #27 National Ranking

Tim Cass, University of New Mexico - Deputy Athletic Director &
Former Texas A&M and UNM Men's Head Coach. Was a good coach.
Men's Team - #61 National Ranking
Women's Team - No National Ranking

Jeff Conyers, Southern University - Women's Head Coach
Men's Team - Does not have a Men's Team
Women's Team - No National Ranking

Alex Dorato, Yale University - Head Men's Coach
Men's Team - No National Ranking
Women's Team - #29 National Ranking

D.J. Gurule, Gonzaga University - Women's Head Coach
Men's Team - No National Ranking
Women's Team - No National Ranking

Callie Hubbell, Conference USA - Coordinator of Student Services
Played for Vanderbilt and then was an assisant Women's coach for Texas A&M for 2 years.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0By9sEF9wNPH-eldDZjNvT20xZVE/view?pli=1&sle=true

To the committee members - Start by fixing your own tennis programs before you recommend how other should do it. I would like see the attendance records for tennis matches at your own institutions. I would like to see the television contract that states they would show matches on television if the matches were less than 3 hours.
 

woodrow1029

Hall of Fame
The tv audience will eventually catch up to our great sport at the college level. Don't change the structure of how the match evolves by hoping for a tv contract. Play doubles last and make it worth 3 individual points with 8 game pro sets. No doubles if up 6-0 or 5-1 in the dual. When players are available after a ten minute break they start their doubles instead of waiting for the longer singles matches to finish. Doubles to determine the outcome will give college tennis a different flavor-as well as the insane cheering-than pro tennis. So will the huge rivalries!

I agree with this. I think this would be a very good change that many more people could agree with. Why not first singles, then doubles? But I still think doubles should worth 1 point. And if the match is decided before the doubles, then is more of an option between coaches if they want to play it or not.

Sorry, I don't agree with this. First of all, the number of matches that would actually be 3-3 going into the doubles would be very low. Secondly, unless you plan on taking the doubles out of the NCAAs, the coaches would always (unless weather doesn't allow it) play out the doubles as there are doubles rankings, and they would be screwing their players by not playing them.

The doubles are usually pretty quick, and I think if they were to do anything it would be that they should abandon the third doubles match if the doubles point is already decided. But even then, you could be messing with the rankings in doubles. As it is now, if the doubles point is decided, they play out the third match, with a tiebreak at 7-7 instead of 8-8 (some conferences shorten it even more when the doubles point is decided).

My experience as an ITA referee is that even when there is potential rain in the forecast, the coaches and players are very reluctant to play singles first, followed by doubles. Since the coaches make the rules, I don't ever see this happening.
 

floridatennisdude

Hall of Fame
In my decade of following college tennis, I've never disliked the format. Some matches are long, but so was Isner-Mahut. It's the game. Many sports go into OT, tennis's OT is the 3rd set. Eliminating it for a super breaker is like taking PKs in soccer after a regulation tie. Or shooting free throws for a basketball game, etc, etc.

Biggest shame is that this type of change would likely disrupt the flow of quality players that come to college tennis in lieu of the futures and challengers. A breaker 3rd won't teach those kids how to grind out big wins.
 

SoCal10s

Hall of Fame
as an official I can just see the amount of hooking that would happen on the no-ad points ad then the screaming matches.

so, is it any different on game points ,if cheating is going to happen how can it be prevented ? it's always going to be this way unless technology can put a ''hawkeye'' on every court ... old umpires don't have better eyes than D1 players.. it's a tough job...
 

MarTennis

Semi-Pro
Bingo!

It's all money based decisions probably. College tennis isn't making any money, so the NCAA, which only cares about what will bring them more money, is going to sit down and carve up the sports that don't make money to the bare bone and act like they are doing everyone a favor.

Reducing to defacto club status.
 

JLyon

Hall of Fame
so, is it any different on game points ,if cheating is going to happen how can it be prevented ? it's always going to be this way unless technology can put a ''hawkeye'' on every court ... old umpires don't have better eyes than D1 players.. it's a tough job...

You're right but amazing how tight the lines get in pressure situations, also a large majority of schools do not have the benefit of of chair officials, so with 2-3 roving it is not an easy job for officials or the players
 

BHSC

New User
Play doubles last and make it worth 3 individual points with 8 game pro sets. No doubles if up 6-0 or 5-1 in the dual.

For years, Doubles was played last.

However, so many matches ended without doubles or with just one doubles match finishing, de-emphasizing doubles.

In the early 1990s, they changed the system to what we currently use.

It's officially called the Scarpa System, named for Paul Scarpa, Furman's long time coach, who recently retired and was inducted in the ITA Hall of Fame this past May.

One reason for the change was to bring back the emphasis on doubles and make it an integral part of a match.
 

Tennishacker

Professional
so, is it any different on game points ,if cheating is going to happen how can it be prevented ? it's always going to be this way unless technology can put a ''hawkeye'' on every court ... old umpires don't have better eyes than D1 players.. it's a tough job...

The majority of umps will not over rule players.

I applaud the ones that do.
 

Tennishacker

Professional
For years, Doubles was played last.

However, so many matches ended without doubles or with just one doubles match finishing, de-emphasizing doubles.

In the early 1990s, they changed the system to what we currently use.

It's officially called the Scarpa System, named for Paul Scarpa, Furman's long time coach, who recently retired and was inducted in the ITA Hall of Fame this past May.

One reason for the change was to bring back the emphasis on doubles and make it an integral part of a match.

Thanks for info, I was wondering when and who can up with the system.

IMO, it's a great system that works very well.
 

goran_ace

Hall of Fame
One thing that comes to mind from my college tennis days is that our coach use to make us do a lot of conditioning work. His philosophy was that we will have the edge anytime a match goes to a third set because fitness will not be a factor.

If this new system were adopted for every college match, I can imagine instead of doing all that conditioning work he might emphasize working on how to hit bigger serves because in a tiebreak having a big serve can give you the edge.
 

Jack the Hack

Hall of Fame
the people i see speaking up like manny diaz say this will "kill our college game as we know it today"...and check out this article to see what top junior coaches such as frank salazar and vesa ponnka (a badass i was lucky enough to train under for a few years) have to say about the third set tb:
http://www.tennisrecruiting.net/article.asp?id=1479

Thank you for posting that article. It's a well written summary of the (not so) super tie-breaker by Chuck Kriese, the former Clemson coach, who knows what he's talking about (he's a 4 time National Coach of the Year). Kriese wrote several excellent books on coaching, and fitness was a hallmark of his players. Great read, including the history and opposition to the breaker previously.
 

bubba maroon

New User
Let the tennis recruiting stars determine the winners

why even play matches if shortening it is an issue? Just give the trophy to the top recruiting class.

just count up the stars divide by six and let the kids play a best of five points doubles match and remember only the blue chips get their travel paid for

allow only allow 10 seconds on a changeover and have the line judge only look at that aspect and then commission a multi-million dollar study into the health benefits achieved by shortening the match by an average of 20 seconds

also do not permit injury timeouts unless blood is evident or the higher ranked player {more stars) is losing
 

andfor

Legend
You said this....
I feel like a lot of the posters in this thread aren't actually college players, or current juniors...I don't think you guys realize that a hard fought 8-game pro set followed almost immediately by a best of 3 set match can be quite tiring sometimes. A match that ends with a super-breaker can be just as special as a 3 set match. I don't think the doubles should be shortened, anything shorter than an 8 game pro set would be silly. But, I think a super-breaker would add a lot more tension and excitement to the game, as well as shortening matches. It would also give lower ranked teams that don't have 6 blue chips in their lineups a better shot at pulling off an upset if the "better" team was having an off day.

Then I said....
I'm a former player. I played in the stone age when all matches were best of 9, 2 out of 3 sets for both singles and doubles. If we got tired in a match and lost on fitness, you had heck to pay in conditioning the next few days. Not one player/teammate cried about it. There was no such thing as a match TB, or polyester string (we used Kevlar) and I wore canvas Nike's because they were free.

Back then DI played No-Ad. Ask UGA about No-Ad and their loss to Lander. Then ask why they don't play No-Ad any more.

A little history may just serve you well along with some humility.

What? You don't have to act like a jerk...we're talking about today's game not what happened "back then"

You apparently can not follow a point and don't know the history of the college game. "Those that don't know history are destined to repeat it" Unknown. Anyways. The point is, a format to shorten matches used to be in place. When a couple of top teams were then upset and luck was considered a factor the format changed again, closer to what we have today in advance of what we'll see in 2013.

Doubles is grueling. Ha. Read what the current top college players have to say about it.
 

Nostradamus

Bionic Poster
^^^Doubles isn't physically grueling but it can have its mental effect. If the player wins a tough doubles match 8-6 and team wins the point, it can have a carry over effect. and if they lose, then it can have mentally draining effect.
 
That Facebook group is great.I love Jomby's "**** it I'll just stay in France next year". It's in jest but its actually a very valid point, Many players will think that way seriously and not come to the USA.
 

Jack the Hack

Hall of Fame
These are the committee members as stated on the bottom of the document:

Cathy Beene, Georgia Southern University - Athletics' Senior Woman Administrator & former coach
Men's Team - No National Ranking
Women's Team - No National Ranking

Tad Berkowitz, University of Arizona - Head Men's Coach
Men's Team - No National Ranking
Women's Team - #27 National Ranking

Tim Cass, University of New Mexico - Deputy Athletic Director &
Former Texas A&M and UNM Men's Head Coach. Was a good coach.
Men's Team - #61 National Ranking
Women's Team - No National Ranking

Jeff Conyers, Southern University - Women's Head Coach
Men's Team - Does not have a Men's Team
Women's Team - No National Ranking

Alex Dorato, Yale University - Head Men's Coach
Men's Team - No National Ranking
Women's Team - #29 National Ranking

D.J. Gurule, Gonzaga University - Women's Head Coach
Men's Team - No National Ranking
Women's Team - No National Ranking

Callie Hubbell, Conference USA - Coordinator of Student Services
Played for Vanderbilt and then was an assisant Women's coach for Texas A&M for 2 years.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0By9sEF9wNPH-eldDZjNvT20xZVE/view?pli=1&sle=true

To the committee members - Start by fixing your own tennis programs before you recommend how other should do it. I would like see the attendance records for tennis matches at your own institutions. I would like to see the television contract that states they would show matches on television if the matches were less than 3 hours.

kme5150: Your post was excellent, and the list of the committee members, their backgrounds, and the current state of the tennis programs at the institutions they represent was great research. Just so that you are aware, I have copied this and posted it on the Facebook page based on this topic. Within my post, I credited you by your Tennis Warehouse screen name for putting this together. It's public information, but I hope you don't mind that I rebroadcasted it.
 

andfor

Legend
^^^Doubles isn't physically grueling but it can have its mental effect. If the player wins a tough doubles match 8-6 and team wins the point, it can have a carry over effect. and if they lose, then it can have mentally draining effect.

Is that a reason to shorten the game to a 6 game pro set. What are you saying Feddie?
 
Why not just play the singles first and than only play doubles if the score is 3-3? That would shorten many of the matches and make the doubles even more exciting.
 
Sorry, I don't agree with this. First of all, the number of matches that would actually be 3-3 going into the doubles would be very low. Secondly, unless you plan on taking the doubles out of the NCAAs, the coaches would always (unless weather doesn't allow it) play out the doubles as there are doubles rankings, and they would be screwing their players by not playing them.

The doubles are usually pretty quick, and I think if they were to do anything it would be that they should abandon the third doubles match if the doubles point is already decided. But even then, you could be messing with the rankings in doubles. As it is now, if the doubles point is decided, they play out the third match, with a tiebreak at 7-7 instead of 8-8 (some conferences shorten it even more when the doubles point is decided).

My experience as an ITA referee is that even when there is potential rain in the forecast, the coaches and players are very reluctant to play singles first, followed by doubles. Since the coaches make the rules, I don't ever see this happening.

The match would continue with doubles at 4-2 as well because the doubles would be worth 3 points, putting a huge emphasis on the doubles. Not playing the doubles because of a one-sided match would not be different than quitting the remaining singles after match completion at 4-0, 4-1, 4-2 like today's matches.

It would help college tennis matches to be packaged better for tv without compromising integrity.
 

tball2day

Semi-Pro
These are the committee members as stated on the bottom of the document:

Cathy Beene, Georgia Southern University - Athletics' Senior Woman Administrator & former coach
Men's Team - No National Ranking
Women's Team - No National Ranking

Tad Berkowitz, University of Arizona - Head Men's Coach
Men's Team - No National Ranking
Women's Team - #27 National Ranking

Tim Cass, University of New Mexico - Deputy Athletic Director &
Former Texas A&M and UNM Men's Head Coach. Was a good coach.
Men's Team - #61 National Ranking
Women's Team - No National Ranking

Jeff Conyers, Southern University - Women's Head Coach
Men's Team - Does not have a Men's Team
Women's Team - No National Ranking

Alex Dorato, Yale University - Head Men's Coach
Men's Team - No National Ranking
Women's Team - #29 National Ranking

D.J. Gurule, Gonzaga University - Women's Head Coach
Men's Team - No National Ranking
Women's Team - No National Ranking

Callie Hubbell, Conference USA - Coordinator of Student Services
Played for Vanderbilt and then was an assisant Women's coach for Texas A&M for 2 years.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0By9sEF9wNPH-eldDZjNvT20xZVE/view?pli=1&sle=true

To the committee members - Start by fixing your own tennis programs before you recommend how other should do it. I would like see the attendance records for tennis matches at your own institutions. I would like to see the television contract that states they would show matches on television if the matches were less than 3 hours.

If they haven't already, hopefully the coaches at the top 20-40 schools (et al.,) form their own ad hoc committee and join against this thing. The facebook and twitter action on this is fabulous (with some good chuckles in there).
 

andfor

Legend
You didn't read my post correctly, I said doubles SHOULD NOT be shortened.
Also, your quote ""Those that don't know history are destined to repeat it" is a pathetic attempt to sound intelligent. In fact I bet you searched for that in google to make sure you didn't misquote.

You have a severe reading comprehension problem. I did not say what you said. You need to slow down, re-read your post, then mine. If you can't do that I'll tell you my point is shortening matches allows the element of luck to increase. A shortened match format (no-ad) was tried back in the 80's at the D1 level. A couple of top D1 teams lost to teams attributed to no-ad, Lander def. Georgia. No-ad went away shortly thereafter.

Is that what you want? More luck as a factor to determine the winner?
 

floridatennisdude

Hall of Fame
Funny thing is DI schools force their format on non-DI schools as a condition to play the match.

Well, duh. Why would they want to invite a team to play And agree to use a format the home team isnt familiar with. MLB inter league games played at an AL park uses a DH, but they don't use a DH at NL parks.
 

andfor

Legend
Well, duh. Why would they want to invite a team to play And agree to use a format the home team isnt familiar with. MLB inter league games played at an AL park uses a DH, but they don't use a DH at NL parks.

In my experience when the DI team was away they still forced their format on the non-D1 school. Duh?
 
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