College Feature
NEWS: NCAA Individual Championships Moving to Fall
by Rhiannon Potkey, 11 January 2023
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The lengthy stays at the NCAA Division I Championships for top players on top teams will be over for at least two years.
The NCAA Division I Competition Oversight Committee on Wednesday approved a two-year pilot program to hold the Division I men's and women's individual tennis championships in the fall of 2024 and 2025.
The Division I men's and women's team championships will continue to be held in the spring both years. The potential split championships has been a talking point among coaches, officials and players for the last few years.
At the completion of the pilot program, the Division I Men's and Women's Tennis Committee will evaluate the championships to see what the best path is for the championships in the future.
Part of the reason for the decision to hold the Division I individual championships in the fall involves student-athlete well-being.
Under the current format, players in both the team and individual championships can compete for nine days in a row, which can lead to fatigue and injury. Also, players participating only in the individual championships may wait up to three weeks from the end of the regular season before they compete again.
The Division I Competition Oversight Committee also hopes the modification can help increase attendance at the events and additional broadcast opportunities.
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) and the United States Tennis Association (USTA) collaborated on a survey with the Division I Men's and Women's Tennis Committee that showed 68% of the respondents favored the individual tennis championships shifting to the fall.
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About Rhiannon Potkey
Rhiannon Potkey is a veteran sportswriter with more than two
decades of experience in journalism. Potkey has covered many
sports at many levels and has a passion for finding great stories.
Potkey has covered the U.S. Open, junior sectional and national
events, college conference championships and Davis Cup matches.
Potkey is currently Content Strategist for Tennis Recruiting. You
can reach Rhiannon by email at
[email protected].
