Continued Winning Could Bring Regional Ncaa Action To WSU
This article is in no way intended to jinx the Washington State women’s volleyball team. It’s just an informational note about NCAA tournament possibilities for WSU.
The first round of the 48-team tournament will be played Nov. 29 at to-be-determined sites.
First-round winners will advance to play other first-round winners, while some round-one winners will move on to play the top eight teams - as ranked by the NCAA Tournament Committee - which will have earned byes by virtue of their performance this season.
This year, the NCAA has adopted a district regional alignment with conferences and independents divided into eight regions to determine what teams will play each other and where in the tournament.
Washington State and the rest of the Pac-10 Conference are in District 8 with the Big Sky Conference, West Coast Conference and independents Cal State-Northridge and Sacramento State.
District 8 teams qualifying for the tournament will be seeded against District 5 in rounds the first three rounds. District 5 teams will come from the Big Eight (home to No. 1 Nebraska), the Mid-Continent Conference, Missouri Valley Conference and independent Oral Roberts.
In the event that Stanford retains its No. 1 ranking and WSU its No. 2 ranking in District 8, the chances are good that WSU could be moved to another district for the tournament but get awarded home-court advantage for the regional because of its national ranking in the coaches poll.
Second-round matches will be played Dec. 2-3 and the regional round will be held Dec. 7-10. The Final Four will be held Dec. 14-16 at the University of Massachusetts.
Washington State appears qualified to host a regional.
The NCAA criteria for hosting a regional round is determined upon:
The quality and availability of accommodations for teams in a given locale.
Whether the member institution can meet the NCAA’s minimum financial guarantee.
A school’s attendance history.
As far as WSU is concerned, football season will be over by the time volleyball regionals start, and the basketball team will be in Syracuse, N.Y., for the Carrier Classic Dec. 8-9.
In terms of meeting the financial commitment required to host a regional, member institutions must have an arena or gym that can hold a minimum of 2,000 spectators and schools must be able to guarantee that they can generate $6,000 in net receipts during the regional competition.
Filling Bohler Gym for big matches has not been a problem for the Cougars in recent years.
WSU is fourth nationally in total attendance with 20,213 fans at 11 home matches (1,838 per game). Bohler’s capacity is slightly more than 4,000.
And if demand for tickets were extraordinarily high, WSU and the NCAA have the option to consider Friel Court as a potential playing site for the Cougars and other regional qualifiers.
However, none of this means anything if WSU doesn’t keep winning.
This weekend
No. 5 WSU (8-1 Pac-10, 16-1 overall) hosts No. 14 Arizona State (6-3, 12-3) at Bohler Gym at 7 p.m. Friday before facing No. 13 Arizona (4-5, 12-5), also at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Friday’s match will be shown on Prime Sports Northwest at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Saturday’s match will be shown on PSN at 4:30 p.m. Monday.
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