DI Women's Basketball Committee elects chairs for 2019-21

Group backs move to two-site regional format by 2023 championship and use of NCAA Evaluation Tool

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Posted: August 7, 2019 -- 11:40 a.m. CT

At the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee meeting July 15-17 in Indianapolis, veteran athletics administrators Diane Turnham and Nina King were picked to lead the committee over the next two years.

Entering her fifth year on the committee, Turnham, senior associate athletics director and senior woman administrator at Middle Tennessee, will chair the committee in 2019-20, taking over on September 1 from Rhonda Lundin Bennett, senior associate athletics director at Nevada, who chaired the committee the past two years. King, currently in her second year on the committee, will serve as vice chair of the committee during the coming year before assuming chair duties in 2020-21. King is senior deputy director of athletics for administration/legal affairs and chief of staff at Duke.

In addition, the committee also recommended pursuing a two-site, eight-team regional format by the 2023 championship, while backing the use of the NCAA Evaluation Tool in the evaluation of teams.

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The committee's recommendation to move to a two-site regional format effective for the 2023 championship was supported by the Division I Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee. The Women’s Basketball Committee noted moving to a two-site format would elevate and enhance the student-athlete experience, enhance broadcast coverage, create opportunity for growth of the sport and championship, build the brand of women's basketball and expand programming targeting strategic plan initiatives that were announced in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Strategic Plan.

The committee also conducted its annual summer assessment of the Ratings Percentage Index system, noting that the RPI will remain the sole provider of supplemental data for the evaluation of teams for at-large selection and seeding of the 2020 championship bracket. The committee also will take the next steps toward the possible use of NET for the start of the 2020-21 season. Steps include the analysis of women's basketball statistical data over multiple years to build a women's basketball algorithm that includes game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin and net efficiency (offensive efficiency minus defensive efficiency).

Click HERE to read the entire press release.

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