New Women's Basketball Championship Format to Reward Highest Seeds
BOSTON — For the first time in over 20 years, the excitement of the America East Women’s Basketball Championship will be heading to at least four America East campuses as the conference announced a change to its women’s basketball championship format on Thursday afternoon. Beginning next season, the entire tournament will take place on campus sites with the higher-seeded school hosting each game throughout the championship.
“This is an exciting time for women’s basketball in our conference,” said America East Commissioner Amy Huchthausen. “While we’ve had successful single-site championships in the past, including the last two years in Portland, this format has been widely successful on the men’s side for the last four years and will afford more of our campuses the chance to experience the thrill of postseason basketball and create great atmospheres. It will also benefit our strongest teams and give them the best opportunity to advance to the NCAA tournament with the highest seed possible.”
The format change, which was proposed by a women’s basketball working group consisting of head coaches, athletic directors and senior administrators, was unanimously endorsed by the conference’s athletic directors in early April. The format will mirror the men’s, which moved to campus sites in 2015 and has experienced great success over the past four years.
“Moving to a high-seed format for our championship is an exciting time for women’s basketball in the America East,” said New Hampshire women’s basketball coach Maureen Magarity. “Not only will it reward the teams that performed the best in the regular season, it will also showcase the amazing home court venues and great fan bases in our league.”.
The top eight teams in the final regular-season standings will qualify for the women’s basketball championship. The exact dates of both the men’s and women’s tournament dates will be discussed by the conference’s coaches and administrators and determined at the conference’s annual meeting in June.
"We're very much looking forward to the higher seed format," Binghamton Director of Athletics Patrick Elliott said. "It will reward schools' regular season performance while further engaging students and the local community to generate an exciting environment for the women's basketball championship."
The America East Women’s Basketball Championship has had a high-seed format just three times previously, the last in 1997. The tournament was played on campus sites in each round in its inaugural three seasons from 1995-97. For the last two seasons, the quarterfinals and semifinals of the championship were held at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, Maine with the championship game held at the highest remaining seed. From 1998-2016 the championship was held at campus sites.
About America East: The America East provides its member schools and their athletic programs a platform upon which student-athletes can achieve both collegiate and life success through the promotion and nurturing of athletic excellence, academic achievement and leadership, on and off the field.
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