The Ann Arbor News reports today that the NCAA Championships/Competition
Cabinet has voted against recommending to the NCAA Management Council
that the hockey tournament be expanded to 16 teams.  This move
effectively kills any hopes for expansion for the next couple of years.
Among the reasons given for the "no" vote were the already high (23
percent) percentage of teams making the tournament and the fact that the
"sponsorship trends" (i.e. the number of institutions sponsoring the
sport) are flat.
 
The article is on line at
 
http://mich.live.advance.net/wolverines/index.ssf?/sports/stories/puxnote06.frm
 
 
The chair of the cabinet is Jean Lenti Ponsetto, an athletic
administrator at DePaul University.  She also hinted that the cabinet
was concerned about the effect on other sports if one sport were allowed
to have 31 percent of its institutions in the tournament.
 
I have compiled a list of teams in the NCAA tournament in Division I
team sports:
 
Baseball         64/277    23.1%
Hockey           12/ 52    23.1
M Lacrosse       12/ 52    23.1
W Volleyball     64/299    21.4
W Basketball     64/306    20.9
Softball         48/232    20.7
M Basketball     64/312    20.5
W Soccer         48/250    19.2
W Lacrosse       12/ 66    18.2
M Volleyball      4/ 22    18.2
M Soccer         32/191    16.8
M Water Polo      4/ 24    16.7
Field Hockey     12/ 73    16.4
 
Men's Soccer received approval yesterday to expand to 48 which would be
25.1% of the institutions.  Hockey's request for 16 teams would have
brought its total percentage up to 30.8%.
 
 
Alton
 
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