In 1989, the NCAA decided its Women's Basketball Championship should follow the same rules as the Men's Championship.
The NCAA kicked local television cameras out of all venues and passed along the same stringent requirements for media coverage as written for the men. To be eligible, media outlets must cover 90 percent of a school's games and staff all tournament rounds in order to be eligible to cover the Final Four.
The NCAA made certain its women's tournament adhere to the procedures prescribed for the men's tournament in other areas: expansion to 64 teams; seeding based on wins and strength of schedule; and using the pod system to minimize travel.
There remains one major difference between the men's championship and the women's championship: men's teams cannot play on their home court; women's teams can.
Monday night, North Carolina, the top-seeded team in the entire tournament, had to play Vanderbilt on its home court. Top seeds are supposed to be protected in terms of travel and playing sites, but the Tar Heels went up against a No. 8 seed that enjoyed a home-court advantage. Imagine the hue and cry if No. 1 Connecticut had had to play No. 8 Kentucky in Lexington during the men's championship!
The NCAA is, of course, concerned about attendance. It fears that if the Vanderbilts and Old Dominions couldn't play in the tournament games they host, not enough fans would come to the games. But with the increasing parity in women's basketball, one of these years a top seed is going to lose to a lower seeded team playing at home.
The NCAA should place fairness above money and abolish this practice.
Or, the NCAA could stop paying lip service to the notion that its policies must be uniformly applied. For example, if the NCAA relaxed the media requirements, the Women's Championship might get better coverage-which might help attendance.
