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Overheard at an NCAA Tournament match when someone was trying to explain to a reporter how the Ratings Percentage Index was used in the Division I women’s volleyball selection process.
“The problem is, once we start conference play, it is hard to improve our RPI,” he said. “The bottom teams weigh us down and, the way it’s going, it’s getting harder and harder to be a top-four seed and host a regional.”
These comments were not made by someone from the Big West, Hawaii’s conference. This was someone from the Pac-12 which had dominated the sport with a combined 17 titles, beginning with the inaugural championship in 1981, through 2019.
Yes, the Pac-12 got six teams in but only two were among the 16 seeded — UCLA at 13 and Washington, conference champion, at 15 — and that was only good enough to host the first two rounds. Consider that the ACC — which has never won a volleyball title — had three seeds out of its six teams selected, including two of the top three (Louisville at 1 and Pitt at 3); it meant, barring an upset, both the Cardinals and Panthers were home for the first four rounds.
As it played out, three of the top seeds didn’t have to travel until it was final-four time: Louisville and Pitt as well as fourth-seeded Wisconsin. Only Texas, a two-seed, failed to make it to Columbus, Ohio, falling at home to a hot Nebraska team in four.
The geographic shift this year was startling. Nebraska was the farthest west out of the four finalists, all of which were either in the central or east time zones, the host city also in the east time zone.
In fact, the women’s tournament hasn’t been played in a Pacific Time Zone since 2013 in Seattle. And, only once before that since 2007 (Sacramento, Calif.).
The NCAA has long been pushing for geographic parity in women’s volleyball, often to the detriment of the west coast conferences that carried the sport through the days of Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (1971-1980) and through the early years of what many considered a hostile takeover by the NCAA. (After years of losing Title IX based lawsuits, the NCAA decided to offer women’s championships, with most Division I schools then opting to leave the AIAW, which soon folded).
Ask long-time Hawaii fans about the geographic bias done in the name of “growing the game.” The Northwest Regional in the 1980s were considered by many the true final four, with the survivor of that often winning the national title a week later: USC in 1981, Hawaii in 1982 and ’87, Pacific in 1985 and ’86, Long Beach State in 1989. (The Rainbow Wahine were sent to the South Regional in 1983 en route to successfully defending their championship).
Don’t get me wrong. It is wonderful that the NCAA has — somewhat — recognized the value of women’s volleyball, a sport second only to basketball in the number of Division I women’s teams.
It’s not like there isn’t interest. The Dec. 18 championship match between Wisconsin and Nebraska set a record for a women’s volleyball match with nearly 1.2 million tuning in.
Imagine what the numbers would have been like if it had been on primetime ESPN instead of ESPN2? Or imagine the interest building up over the two weeks prior had the earlier rounds been on one of the many ESPN channels instead of fans paying for ESPN+ online streaming?
Perhaps it’s just a Cinderella mindset thinking that even the Disney Channel would be better.
But I digress.
Now that the NCAA more than has the parity nationally in the sport, how about some fair-ity?
How about not having the Power-Five football mentality continue to dictate the selection process?
There are 64 bids, 32 automatic for conference champions, 32 at-large. How is it fair that five conferences get nearly 50 percent of the bids with 31? How is it fair that one conference gets eight teams in and over half of those— five — get one of the 16 seeds?
It is no wonder that a child of a lesser volleyball god has difficulty making it past the first two rounds, let alone into the final four. The odds are already in the favor of the “Big Girl Conferences” without the NCAA putting one-bid conference champions in the same subregional (i.e. the Big West’s Hawaii and Brown of the Ivy at Washington earlier this month).
The “Don’t Go West, Young Man” philosophy even seems to have crept into the determination of the final-four sites. The next four championships will be held in Nebraska, Florida, Kentucky and Missouri.
Since the serious application of the RPI to women’s volleyball, representation of the smaller conferences in the final four has been rare. Since 2000, only the Big West’s Hawaii (3 times) and Long Beach State (1), and the West Coast’s BYU (2) and Santa Clara (1) have advanced out of a regional final. And only BYU has played for the national title (2014).
The RPI is flawed, a system based on a team’s won-loss record, the won-loss record of a team’s opponents, as well as the won-loss record of opponents’ opponents. No team has control over how another team schedules.
It’s why men’s basketball has dropped the RPI when it comes selection time. So should women’s volleyball.
One only has to look at the final RPI of this season to know there’s something wrong with the metrics. National champion Wisconsin defeated Louisville to reach the final but the Cardinals are atop the RPI with the Badgers at 2, and national runner-up Nebraska at 6.
Hawaii (22-8) finished at 49, behind teams that didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament. Those included UTEP (45), Valparaiso (46), USC (47) and High Point (48).
As for the person from the Pac-12 bemoaning the conference’s fall, the Huskies (16) were affected by the bottom teams — Cal brought up the rear at 252. However, it was worse for the one-bid Big West, whose teams won six of the first nine NCAA titles — UC Riverside was 305 out of 340.
It’s not Washington’s fault that the Golden Bears went 7-24, including 0-20 in the Pac-12. It’s not Hawaii’s fault the Highlanders went 6-24 and 2-18.
Here’s hoping for a little fair-ity starting in 2022.
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Reach Cindy Luis at Cindy3Luis@gmail.com
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