Rumored NCAA Changes

[Nostradamus]

Originally Posted by tennisgreat755

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!?

Yea, this will be just like champions tour with old men that doesn't have the stamina to go 3 sets. Except that this is college tennis with many players trying to get themselves ready for the pro tour. at least with hopes of joining the pro tour anyway.

[ClarkC]

I don't have a Twitter account, but I follow some Twitter accounts via bookmarks to keep on top of tennis news. We have had postings today that vehemently opposed the proposed changes from the following:

Former college players:
Stephen Amritraj
Devin Britton
Bradley Klahn
Daniel Nguyen

Current college players:
Mitchell Frank
Evan King
Mallory Burdette
Nicole Gibbs
Lauren Herring

Top juniors:
Noah Rubin
Thai Kwiatkowski
Luca Corinteli
Shane Vinsant
Harrison Adams

Check out the #SaveCollegeTennis tag in Twitter for examples. There is a link in there to a Facebook group that started today.

Yep, it is just the ignorant non-playing posters on this board who don't understand the wisdom of this change.

[mikej]

Originally Posted by ClarkC

The college and top junior players I know think the NCAA proposal is terrible, and the people here mostly agree with them, and the college coaches seems to agree as well. So this board cannot be too bad in that respect, right?

you beat me to this post

now we have a couple people on here saying "if we were only more in the know we'd agree with it....etc, etc, etc"

that's the only uninformed bs in this discussion

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

[tball2day]

Originally Posted by ClarkC

The college and top junior players I know think the NCAA proposal is terrible, and the people here mostly agree with them, and the college coaches seems to agree as well. So this board cannot be too bad in that respect, right?

Ya Clark, there are certainly things that are good about the board, like it can be a good source of info on new things (like this change). Maybe my post was too broad-stroke. But when you are or have been on the inside of a junior issue, are or have been a coach, or know a junior or college player well, or know a college team closely, or work within USTA or ITF, or at an academy or other situations that get you on the inside of some of this stuff, - one can see just how much posted here is wrong, so it's hard not to invalidate the whole thing. But certainly entertaining at times.

p.s. I loved the reply about tennis in the stone age....reminded me of... "in my day we walked to and from school 5 miles in the snow uphill in both directions."

[mikej]

Originally Posted by tball2day

one can see just how much posted here is wrong, so it's hard not to invalidate the whole thing. But certainly entertaining at times.

p.s. I loved the reply about tennis in the stone age....reminded me of... "in my day we walked to and from school 5 miles in the snow uphill in both directions."

stop sounding like an idiot

let's see your list of top players / coaches / etc that like this change...we have a starter list of those that think it's idiotic, thanks to clark...how does yours compare?

[Nostradamus]

Originally Posted by ClarkC

I don't have a Twitter account, but I follow some Twitter accounts via bookmarks to keep on top of tennis news. We have had postings today that vehemently opposed the proposed changes from the following:

Former college players:
Stephen Amritraj
Devin Britton
Bradley Klahn
Daniel Nguyen

Current college players:
Mitchell Frank
Evan King
Mallory Burdette
Nicole Gibbs
Lauren Herring

Top juniors:
Noah Rubin
Thai Kwiatkowski
Luca Corinteli
Shane Vinsant
Harrison Adams

Check out the #SaveCollegeTennis tag in Twitter for examples. There is a link in there to a Facebook group that started today.

Yep, it is just the ignorant non-playing posters on this board who don't understand the wisdom of this change.

Nicole gibbs making a run at NCAA championships next year. 3rd set supertiebreaker will even out the field more. Better player is the one that gets hurt by this.

[ClarkC]

I would post more names, but they are rolling in faster than I care to keep up with.

http://mobile.twitter.com/search?q=S...ennis&recent=1

Lots of mid-major college players I have not heard of who talk about wanting to finish their careers under the old rules, etc., but also lots of college and junior players I have heard of (Caroline Price, Emina Bektas, George Goldhoff et al.)

[JW10S]

Originally Posted by tennisgreat755

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!?

If this is legit it would make college tennis even less relevant than it is now. I know I'm dating myself but when I played college tennis we played best of 3 sets for both singles and doubles--so sometimes we'd play 6 sets a match. Each match counted as a full point so you had to win 5 matches to win a dual match. Our team won an NCAA championship and we EARNED it. Seems to me there is a direct correlation between the demise of college tennis and the shortening of the doubles matches. This would only diminish college tennis further. Next they'll be using World Team Tennis scoring.

[Nostradamus]

Originally Posted by JW10S

If this is legit it would make college tennis even less relevant than it is now. I know I'm dating myself but when I played college tennis we played best of 3 sets for both singles and doubles--so sometimes we'd play 6 sets a match. Each match counted as a full point so you had to win 5 matches to win a dual match. Our team won an NCAA championship and we EARNED it. Seems to me there is a direct correlation between the demise of college tennis and the shortening of the doubles matches. This would only diminish college tennis further. Next they'll be using World Team Tennis scoring.

actually world team scoring doesnt' sound half bad. can they get the cheerleaders in there too ?

[mikej]

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

[Nostradamus]

Originally Posted by mikej

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]

Originally Posted by aceprojesus

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.

[The Wreck]

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/

[mikej]

Originally Posted by The Wreck

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]

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]

Originally Posted by mikej

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]

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]

Originally Posted by Satsuma Illini

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]

Originally Posted by The Wreck

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]

Originally Posted by andfor

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