Rumored NCAA Changes
 

According to Zoo Tennis, "changes are believed to be reduction of doubles to a six-game set, with the singles decided in a a super tiebreaker if there is a split, with the goal of shortening the matches." Does anyone else think this is ridiculous!?

don't even think i could bring myself to follow college tennis anymore if that foolishness came into effect

two sets is not a tennis match

grinding, physical third sets are what it's all about

and you think cheating in college tennis is bad now? what about when half the matches at NCAAs are decided by a few points in a supertiebreak...god help us

i can say with total seriousness that if either obama or romney guaranteed me this wouldn't happen, they'd have my vote

screw the economy, save college tennis!

Zoo Tennis also mentioned that the ITA should just start their own year-end tournament. No idiots of the ncaa trying to mess things up. The ncaa can make their changes and watch the fans go away.

that would make my year if the ITA took over and all the top teams boycotted NCAAs - let university of north dakota take home that farce of a title

I'm with MikeJ. This would ruin college tennis as we know it. These gusya re fit, they can play 3 sets.

It's not like we have to worry about shortening matches for TV time. So absurd.

Why don't we just flip a coin to decide and all go home and watch football/basketball on TV?

This has to pass the ITA Committee in December hopefully common sense will rule, just horrible changes made by idiots in suits with no clue.

Solving a problem that doesn't exist, this idea. Hopefully it's just a baseless internet rumor.

Totally agree.

I played college tennis back in the '90s, when the doubles lines were also best of three sets. I had a hard time buying into it when they shortened the doubles to a pro set. Therefore, shortening the doubles even more, and reducing singles to a third set breaker if they split? No way!!!

Why would they do this? As you mentioned, it's not like they have television restrictions to deal with. Besides, entire tennis meets usually last around 3 hours, which is about the amount of time a football or basketball game lasts. And it's not like tennis players are getting serious injuries like athletes do in other sports... so why change anything?

I like it. Less wear and tear in the body for the student-athletes. I don't have any problem playing 3 complete sets in singles, but plus the 8 game set in doubles it's different. Takes its toll.

College tennis players play about the same amount of matches a many basketball and baseball teams. With your logic why stop there? Just cut all college sports games in 1/2.

I don't know if you are a tennis player in college but probably no. If public could vote in this issue I think is a big no against this rule. If college tennis players could vote in this issue, I think it would be much more divided. I am not against the rule, because a tough 3 set match plus a doubles is not so easy. And if is back to back is much tougher. If we played only singles, I would be totally against the rule. If it's changed, I like it. If isn't, nothing much changes, just to be prepared to grind a little more. That's all

Tennis is a sport, it is supposed to be a grind. You are supposed to be wore out when you are finished. It is called work.

I believe these rumored changes are only for the team portion of the NCAA tournament and not for the individual singles and doubles tournaments or regular season matches. Not that I agree with them, but I can imagine why they would be talked about in terms of wear and tear on the players (especially the top players who are playing in the individual singles or doubles tournaments as well as the team tournament) and in terms of making the matches more TV/spectator-friendly.

Men's regular season matches normally don't take very long. Perhaps these should be talked about for shrotening women's regular season matches.

What is the "ITA Committee" that you mention? Is it part of the NCAA, or are you just talking about the ITA? This is an NCAA rumor. The ITA controls everything except the NCAA team and individual championships in May. The NCAA controls those, and they can change those tournaments without ITA approval.

I'm not a fan of this in any way. I like how it operates now. The coaches already have the option of playing a match tb if the overall team match is decided. I believe they have liberty to play match tb's in non-conference matches already if both coaches agree.

If anything, I'd change doubles to the pro format of no-ad scoring with a match tb when splits happen. But, the 8-game pro sets are working fine. Nothing is broken so it would be a shame to try to "fix" the college game.

From what I have read it sounds like this is a done deal. What in the heck is going on with our sport? It is so frustrating. Baseball has 4 hour games, Soccer can go 3 hours with overtime and half time. golf 18 holes is 4 hours. What is the problem?

I don't like the change, but this will not be the end of college tennis as we know it. Again, this is only for the NCAA championship team draw and not for every dual match in the regualr season

The ITA Committee would rule on whether to implement the rules into effect for ITA Matches during the regular season, not sure very many coaches would be happy about this, they do not meet until December and then many times rush the new rulings into place for January competition