Auroraadvocate.com - MAC hoops tourneys to be scaled back

by David Carducci

Record-Courier Reporter

The Mid-American Conference's inability to find a comparable home for its women's basketball tournament has forced a rollback of both men's and women's tournaments for the next two years.

In a move based on cost-cutting and gender equity, the conference's Council of Presidents voted last week to revert back to the formats used from 2000 to 2006, maintaining full 12-team fields, but with first-round games back at campus sites.

Every men's and women's tournament game had been played in Cleveland in each of the last three seasons.

Only the final eight teams in both tournaments will advance to Quicken Loans Arena in 2010 and 2011.

Last year, the men's tournament brought in close to $800,000 in revenue compared with $17,000 from the women's event.

According to Kent State University Athletic Director Laing Kennedy, the league could not consider cutting back the women's tournament without making the same changes to the men's.

"I champion this; both tournaments have to be treated equally," Kennedy said. "And with the equality of the two tournaments, we just couldn't get 12 teams at Quicken Loans Arena. It just wasn't acceptable."

Geno Ford, KSU men's basketball coach, called the changes to the men's tournament, "less than ideal."

"IT'S DEFINITELY not ideal from the perspective of the coaches, players and fans," he said. "However, as this has all been explained to me, I don't think there were a lot of viable options."

Ford said the MAC men's coaches voted 12-0 last month to recommend keeping its entire tournament in Cleveland. That may have been possible if the league had managed to find a less-expensive home for the women's tournament.

Toledo's new Lucas County Arena made a recent bid to take over as host of the women's event.

However, when the dates couldn't fit into the arena's schedule, the MAC's Council of Presidents decided to follow a recommendation by the league's Joint Committee and voted to return to the old tournament formats used prior to 2007.

Lucas County Arena still is considered a viable site for a future MAC women's tournament. The league will also investigate other arenas within its footprint.

New MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher called the changes "a short-term plan of action."

Meanwhile, Kennedy said the league is committed to keeping the men's event at Quicken Loans Arena.

"Hopefully, we can look forward to returning to the format we lost and maybe even regaining the ground we will lose by moving back to neutral sites for the next two years," Ford said.

E-mail:

dcarducci@recordpub.com

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