Women’s format changes — again

Approaching its silver anniversary, the NCAA women’s basketball tournament still is going in for makeovers. Aside from Connecticut and Tennessee making their annual treks to the Final Four, nothing stays the same for long.

And so it goes this year — more tweaking, more change. Eight-team sites are in, compass points to designate regionals are out, and the home-court advantage keeps shrinking.

“It’s been an evolution the last few years,” selection committee member Marie Tuite said.

When the bracket for the 24th NCAA women’s tournament goes up today, it will show eight first- and second-round sites with eight teams at each. Previously, there were 16 sites with four teams.

The terms East, Mideast, Midwest and West have been junked. Regionals now are known by where they’re played — Philadelphia, Chattanooga, Kansas City and Tempe. The same goes for first- and second-round sites, including Storrs, Chapel Hill, Minneapolis and Dallas.

One of the major criticisms of the women’s tournament has been that so many teams play at home in the early rounds. For several years, the 16 highest-seeded teams hosted first- and second-round games and almost all advanced to the regional semifinals.

With only eight sites, there will be many more neutral settings.

“All of us want to get to as many neutral sites as we possibly can,” said Lynn Parkes, who chairs the selection committee. “I think everybody is in agreement that that’s probably the fairest form of competition.”

Even coaches who have benefited from playing tournament games at home agree with that principle.

“I think that would make everyone happy,” said Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, who’s 44-0 in NCAA tournament games in Knoxville. “This is the beginning of something I think is going to be very favorable for the women’s game. It’s something the coaches would really like.”

One thing that hasn’t changed — yet — is that some teams still get to play at home. Five teams expected to make the field would play at home in the first and second rounds this year: Connecticut, Tennessee, Maryland, North Carolina and Minnesota.

The remaining early games will be played in Dallas, Seattle and Fresno.

Dallas will be a quasi-home court because the host schools, Texas Tech and Texas, both are expected to be in the 64-team field, though it certainly won’t be a true home arena for those teams. Washington, the host school in Seattle, won’t make the tournament and Fresno State is a long shot, so those will be neutral.

“The end point will be getting to a neutral environment for all games,” said Tuite, senior associate athletic director at Washington. “Certainly that’s what our coaches want and that’s what we want. We also realize we have to take some steps along the way. We’ve been taking those steps. We’ve taken another one this year.”