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Printable Page
03/14 15:01 CDT NCAA announces 16 opening-weekend hosts for women's tournament
before the bracket reveal
NCAA announces 16 opening-weekend hosts for women's tournament before the
bracket reveal
By DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Writer
Anticipated No. 1 seeds UConn, UCLA, South Carolina and Texas were chosen as
hosts for the first two rounds of the NCAA Women's Tournament on Saturday.
For the first time, the NCAA revealed the 16 teams that will be hosting on
opening weekend a day before the bracket is revealed. The list of schools was
in alphabetical order.
Other hosts were Duke, Iowa, Louisville, LSU, Michigan, Minnesota, North
Carolina, Ohio State, Oklahoma, TCU, Vanderbilt and West Virginia.
By announcing it a day early it gives schools an extra day to sell tickets,
broadcast partner ESPN to start to move its equipment to the locations and the
NCAA to get its marketing materials to sites. The NCAA has done this before in
other sports such as baseball.
"There's such a quick turnaround so if schools know that they're going to be
hosting, that allows them to start that process earlier," NCAA vice president
of women's basketball Lynn Holzman said in an interview with The Associated
Press a few weeks ago. "It helps us operate nationally as we have to get things
moved throughout the country within about a 24, not even a 24-hour period."
Holzman also feels that it can generate more excitement around the bracket
reveal Sunday night.
The regional rounds will be played at two neutral sites for the fourth straight
year. Fort Worth, Texas, will host half of the Sweet 16, and Sacramento,
California, will host the other eight teams.
The Final Four will be played in Phoenix on April 3 and the NCAA championship
game is two days later.
___
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here. AP women's college basketball:
https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and
https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball
