Re: The difficulty of achieving parity with Tennessee, Connecticut

cb <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Did you even think before you wrote that comment? Don't you think you're
> being a bit naive when you say that after UCONN and TN get their players,
> there are enough good players for other schools so that they can be
> competitive? There is a reason why in professional sports, the worst teams
> get to draft first and that is to achieve parity. What the article points
> out that there is no such mechanism in women's college bball. The rich get
> richer and though the poor don't necessarity get poorer, it's just hard to
> catch up. So you may choose to call it whining but they have something to
> whine about. Having the same teams winning the prize year in and year out
> makes it somewhat boring and stale for all except for those fans of these
> elite teams.

The same thing is true in men's bball and every college sport.  If you
aren't paying the athletes, they aren't going to sign a contract that
restricts when and where they can play (like potential pros who enter
the draft).

The difference between men's and women's ball is the depth of the talent
field.  There's nowhere near as big a gap between the #1 recruit and the
#100 recruit in the men's game.  There's a lot of ball being played at a
pretty high level, by people who get *zero* attention from the top Div.
1 men's schools.  On the women's side, the number of players in high
school playing at a high level is much smaller.

What the whine doesn't consider, however, is that there is also a huge
gap in coaching skills and administrative commitment between the top
women's programs and the next tier.  In men's ball, second and third
tier division 1 is still quite big-time.  In women's ball, outside of
perennial NCAA teams (and sometimes even *inside* those), there is
relatively little money spent on facilities and staff, the level of play
coached is often mediocre, and the fan support is minuscule. 

When I watch games between the contenders and also-rans in the men's
field, I am usually impressed by the play of the also-rans.  They
generally lose, because their talent level is not the same, but they
clearly have chops and play good ball.

This is much less true of the also-rans on the women's side.  Most
women's basketball outside the NCAA-level programs is just not that
good.  


Michael