Another Stab at College Tennis Format Change: USTA's College Match Days Move Doubles Last and Only if Match Tied

Below is the letter sent to schools who have agreed to host the 20 College Match Days being marketed by the USTA in the 2014 dual match season.

I heard about this USTA Advisory Group for the first time at the US Open, talking about it with many Division I men's college coaches. Until I received a copy of this letter, I was not sure what the motives or actual changes would be, but this letter explains them, although it is careful to talk about the format changes in terms of "experiments" and "testing." There are several reasons I was taken aback by this initiative, including, in no particular order:

• Bypassing the Intercollegiate Tennis Association for a "fresh perspective" is patronizing and arrogant
• Doubles, an exceptional product at the NCAA Division I level, is completely marginalized by this format
• Doubles provides the most likely pathway to professional tennis for college players, yet it is being de-emphasized. The Bryan brothers would never have played doubles in a dual match at Stanford under this format
• A belief in the importance of television in raising the profile of college tennis is outdated in the live streaming culture we now inhabit
• I'm skeptical of selling out a sport's format in a search for casual fans

I know we are all suffering from "change fatigue" at both the junior and collegiate levels after the past two years of upheaval. I sincerely hope I don't come across as anti-experiment or anti-change--I think I can be against these specific changes, and not against change. I can see the argument for no-ad scoring in doubles, since that is the format in ITF and ATP/WTA play, and I would like to see if that (and the elimination of warmups) would change the 3 hour and 20 minute average match time cited.

I'm annoyed by the survey, which mentions the 100,000 surveys sent (I didn't get one; I don't fit the 20-mile radius criteria), but not the number returned. If I were asked the ideal length of a college football game, I would surely say three hours or less, but I don't expect my desires in that regard would or should lead to a change in the way the game is structured. Football games are routinely 3 hours and 30 minutes long, and yet who is doing surveys or calling for change there?

College tennis contains some of the brightest, most innovative people I know. They love the sport, teach it well and appreciate its best qualities. Let those people, not "Advisory Groups," diagnose and treat the problems they detect. They know best.

September 10, 2013

In January 2013, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) created a Youth & Collegiate Tennis Division. This was a bold step for the national governing body for tennis, and includes a significant investment in resources toward junior and collegiate varsity play.  The USTA believes that collegiate varsity tennis has a tremendous impact – from an aspirational perspective – on youth tennis and on the sport as a whole.

The NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Tennis Committee report of July 2012 referenced “the fragile state of college tennis.”  A contributing factor to this “fragile state” is the staggering number (138) of college tennis programs that have been dropped since 2003.  The USTA is especially concerned with the viability, sustainability, and growth of the sport at the varsity collegiate level.

As part of the investment in youth and collegiate tennis, the USTA piloted the College MatchDay concept in 2013 with four matches in an effort to improve and shine a spotlight on men’s and women’s college tennis across the United States.  Each of the four matches benefited from considerable marketing and exposure, and the attendance was also positively impacted.  The USTA is willing to financially support another 20 College MatchDays (10 men’s and 10 women’s) during the 2014 spring season, and will work with a broadcast partner to televise these matches nationally.  The USTA hopes that College MatchDay can be used as a vehicle to try new formats that may improve the collegiate dual match experience for student-athletes, fans, and television viewers.    

The USTA created an Advisory Group in May 2013.  This group includes NCAA Division I Athletic Directors (see Appendix A) from a variety of conferences and regions across the country, as well as representatives from the NCAA. 

Historically the USTA has worked closely with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).  However, due to the fact that the ITA has been actively engaged in these debates on format changes for a number of years, the USTA chose to not have the ITA at these initial Advisory Group meetings in order to assure a fresh perspective.  The USTA fully intends to continue to work in partnership with the ITA moving forward. 

In preparation for these Advisory Group meetings, a survey was sent to approximately 100,000 USTA members who live within a 20-mile radius of a top-50 ranked men’s and/or women’s Division I tennis program in July 2013. The vast majority (91.1%) of respondents indicated that the ideal length of a dual-match should be three hours or less – far shorter than the current average match length of 3 hours and 40 minutes[1]. Furthermore, 62.8% indicated that matches should last less than 2.5 hours. The ITA also studied approximately 1,500 Division I men’s and women’s matches from the 2013 spring season and the average match length was approximately 3 hours and 20 minutes.  Executives from digital and broadcast media outlets indicated that the ideal match length should fall between 2.5 and 3 hours.

Having met multiple times over the course of the summer, the Advisory Group carefully reviewed each aspect of college tennis and suggested three primary areas of focus while keeping the student-athlete experience as the main priority:

1)     Increasing the number of fans attending college tennis matches;

2)     Increasing local and national media coverage of college tennis;

3)     Highlighting singles competition in the dual match format.

For many years, the ITA and NCAA have been looking at ways to address both time and length challenges facing both college dual matches and the NCAA tennis championships.  With this as a guiding principle, the Advisory Group unanimously recommended (the margin was unanimous; neither the USTA nor the NCAA voted) that the following be piloted during the 2014 College MatchDays. 

·       Singles first. The singles matches will come first; numbers 1-6 singles will be played to start each team dual match.  The integrity of singles will remain the same.  They will be best-of-three sets, worth one point each toward the team result in the dual match.  As is currently the case, four points are required to win the team match.

·       Doubles tie-breakers. In the case of a (3-3) tie after the singles results, then three doubles matches would be played using 10-point super tie-breakers to decide the outcome.  This would create college tennis’ version of “overtime.” The team that wins at least two of the three doubles matches receives the decisive point and wins the match.

·       “Clinch” format. Once four points have been reached (“clinching” the match), the remaining matches shall not be completed.

·       Team warm-up. Players will be expected to warm-up with their own team prior to the scheduled match time and will not warm-up against their opponent before the first point is played.

Furthermore, the consensus of the Advisory Group was that the possibility of a “split season” should also be explored.  This is independent from the College MatchDay recommendations.  Specifically, a split season might entail:

·       Establishing NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships at the end of the fall season

·       Modifying the year-end NCAA Championships to include team competition only

·       Adjusting the NCAA Team Championship schedule to allow for a weekend (and/or Monday) final

Any format changes require testing and experimentation.  The USTA and the College Tennis Advisory Group suggest that these proposed changes to the dual match be “piloted” during the College MatchDay events scheduled for 2014 and look forward to receiving meaningful feedback from all stakeholders.  Further exploration of the “split season” idea is also recommended. 

Subsequent to the Advisory Group meetings, the ITA met with several key Division I men’s and women’s college coaches who were attending the 2013 US Open and USTA semi-annual meetings to also discuss some potential match formats that are time-sensitive.  The ITA and this group of coaches suggested that the 2013 fall season and first several months of the 2014 season be used to experiment with an alternative time-sensitive match format.  The specific format that the ITA – and this group of coaches – recommends will be widely communicated in short order. 

Appendix A

Athletic Directory Advisory Group Roster

Name	Title	School	Conference
Jon Oliver	Executive Associate AD	University of Virginia	ACC
Marcy Girton	Chief of Staff for Athletics	Texas A&M University	SEC
Ian McCaw	Director of Athletics	Baylor University	Big 12
Greg McGarity	Director of Athletics	University of Georgia	SEC
Mike Thomas	Director of Athletics	University of Illinois	Big Ten
Cary Groth	(Former) Director of Athletics	University of Nevada, Reno	Mountain West
Tim Cass	Deputy Athletic Director	University of New Mexico	Mountain West
Thomas Beckett	September 10, 2013

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[1] As reported at the 2013 NCAA Team Championships.  These matches were “clinch / clinch” format, so as soon as doubles was decided, play paused; as soon as the fourth point was won during singles, the match ended.