NCAA.com's Volleyball Blog is back again with Championship Committee Chair Terry Gawlik, the Associate Athletic Director at Wisconsin, as the upcoming Championship selection continues to draw near:
Q. What is the process to which schools get to host the first and second rounds of the tournament? And when does that process begin?
A. All first and second rounds of competition in Volleyball are played on the campus of one of the participating institutions. The process to apply for first and second round sites begins with submitted a bid by November 9th. Within the bid several factors must be present:
--Seating capacity of 2,000
--Exclusive availability for practice and competition beginning on noon -10pm the day prior to the match with each team having a minimum of 1.5 hours of practice, one hour practices for each team and match times for the first day of competition, and one hour of practice and match play for the final teams competing in the second round.
--In-floor net system, separate locker rooms, and a minimum guarantee.
Once the minimum criteria have been met, the committee will consider geographic proximity and seeding in assigning the sites. The sites are announced when the bracket is released.
Q. How closely does the Committee keep an eye on the conference tournaments coming up?
A. The committee is very interested in the conference tournaments that are hosted as the automatic qualifiers are advanced to the bracket. If a team that is not the number one seed in that conference advances, this could make it interesting within the at large pool.
Q. How excited is the committee to have Tampa as the host for this year's championship?
A. Very excited. This is the first Division I Women's Volleyball championship to be held in the state of Florida and they are very excited as well. I know the University of South Florida, the Tampa Bay Sports Commission and the St. Pete Times Forum are working really hard to ensure a great environment for the teams.
Q. What is the process to which schools get to host the first and second rounds of the tournament? And when does that process begin?
A. All first and second rounds of competition in Volleyball are played on the campus of one of the participating institutions. The process to apply for first and second round sites begins with submitted a bid by November 9th. Within the bid several factors must be present:
--Seating capacity of 2,000
--Exclusive availability for practice and competition beginning on noon -10pm the day prior to the match with each team having a minimum of 1.5 hours of practice, one hour practices for each team and match times for the first day of competition, and one hour of practice and match play for the final teams competing in the second round.
--In-floor net system, separate locker rooms, and a minimum guarantee.
Once the minimum criteria have been met, the committee will consider geographic proximity and seeding in assigning the sites. The sites are announced when the bracket is released.
Q. How closely does the Committee keep an eye on the conference tournaments coming up?
A. The committee is very interested in the conference tournaments that are hosted as the automatic qualifiers are advanced to the bracket. If a team that is not the number one seed in that conference advances, this could make it interesting within the at large pool.
Q. How excited is the committee to have Tampa as the host for this year's championship?
A. Very excited. This is the first Division I Women's Volleyball championship to be held in the state of Florida and they are very excited as well. I know the University of South Florida, the Tampa Bay Sports Commission and the St. Pete Times Forum are working really hard to ensure a great environment for the teams.
Leave a comment