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By DOUG FEINBERG, AP Basketball Author
The NCAA is exploring holding a joint Last 4 with the women and men’s basketball tournaments enjoying their final weekend in the identical metropolis, although it could not occur till not less than 2027 with websites already locked in by way of 2026.
Combining the tournaments was one of many suggestions stemming from an exterior overview of gender fairness problems with the tournaments. The report launched in August was sparked by outrage on the disparities between facilities on the two tourneys, together with weight rooms and different options.
The NCAA earlier this week mentioned the ladies’s event can begin utilizing “March Insanity” in advertising and marketing and branding starting this season, addressing one other sharp criticism raised this yr.
A mixed Last 4 is more likely to be extra controversial and the concept doesn’t have common assist. However the NCAA mentioned Thursday it should look into the main points.
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“We’re dedicated to persevering with dialogue in regards to the idea of conducting each the Ladies’s and Males’s Last Fours in the identical metropolis within the subsequent bid cycle for every of those premier NCAA Championships,” mentioned Nina King, chair of the Division I Ladies’s Basketball Committee. “Discovering methods to handle the gender fairness points which have come to exist by way of the years between the Division I Ladies’s and Males’s Basketball Championships is a precedence, and we’re devoted to creating impactful modifications.”
Tom Burnett, chair of the Division I Males’s Basketball Committee, mentioned the committee conferences have been productive.
“If each committees agree that the advice of getting each Last Fours in the identical metropolis is the most suitable choice, we’re dedicated to seeing that will probably be executed with complete planning,” he mentioned.
Coaches should not eager on the concept. The Ladies’s Basketball Coaches Affiliation did a survey of its coaches final month on the suggestions within the report and solely 55% had been in favor of a mixed Last 4. The Related Press obtained a replica of the survey outcomes, which included participaation from 345 of 356 WBCA members.
A lot of the different concepts urged by the report had over 90% approval from the coaches.
The Last Fours from 2027-31 for each tournaments might be introduced subsequent fall.
Final season, due to the coronavirus pandemic, your entire ladies’s event was performed at a impartial website within the San Antonio enviornment. The lads’s tourney was performed completely in Indiana.
In regular years, the lads’s event is performed completely at impartial websites throughout the nation whereas the highest 16 ladies’s seeds host the opening two rounds earlier than shifting to impartial venues. This yr’s ladies’s Last 4 is in Minneapolis.
The NCAA additionally introduced Wednesday that the nationwide workplace will begin from scratch in figuring out budgeting bills for the 2 event staffs as a substitute of adjusting the budgets from the earlier fiscal yr. This transfer will assist present the place variations happen within the two tournaments and probably improve possibilities for equitable spending and cross-promotion.
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