OMAHA, Neb. – Coaches of two of the top teams in the NCAA Division I volleyball tournament on Thursday complained about the set-up for next week’s event, with Kelly Sheffield of Wisconsin saying it could continue to shed an unfavorable light on college sports’ management of female athletes .
As with the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, the NCAA moved the volleyball tournament to one location as a safeguard against COVID-19. The game starts on Wednesday.
The tournament has been moved from the fall due to the pandemic and will be held at CHI Health Center with 48 teams instead of the usual 64. The first three rounds will be played on courts set up in a conference room. The rest is played in the adjacent arena.
ESPN will stream the first two rounds on its digital platforms without play-by-play announcers or analysts.
“I really hope they look at that more closely. I have a feeling that could explode just as well as what the weight room stuff did in women’s basketball,” Sheffield said, referring to criticism of the NCAA for not being a full weight provided training space for women’s teams. “It’s amazing they aren’t [having] a broadcast team. To me, it’s just lazy … just going to watch silence while watching NCAA tournament games. “
The national semi-finals and championship matches will be broadcast on ESPN2.
Sheffield, whose Badgers are the No. 1 seed after runner-up after Stanford in 2019, said the lack of announcers for the first two rounds is diminishing the tournament.
“It will come across as a high school type deal,” he said. ‘It must feel special. That will not be the case for many people. ‘
The NCAA said in a statement that ESPN is not required to produce any first and second round coverage and that COVID-19 restrictions create technical challenges.
Nebraska’s John Cook, whose team is No. 5, said coaches are concerned about using the convention center. There will be four competition courts in two halls and eight practice courts in a third hall.
Four games will be played simultaneously in the first and second rounds – similar to a high school club tournament, Cook said.
Due to COVID-19 protocols, dressing rooms will not be available early in the tournament.
“Volleyball players warm up and then put on their uniforms,” said Cook. “How does that work when you’re in the middle of conference room C?”
The NCAA said teams have secured areas to change clothes.
“Contrary to what has been reported, players were never expected to change clothes on the couch,” said the NCAA.
Cook said that instead of playing at the convention center, the NCAA should hold early games at Creighton’s Sokol Arena, Nebraska-Omaha’s Baxter Arena, and Nebraska’s Devaney Center in Lincoln.
“That’s a lot more fun from an NCAA tournament, because those are three great facilities [and better] than the setup they have now, which is in a convention center, no locker rooms, no bathrooms, “Cook said.” It gets interesting how all this is done. ‘