| | Associated Press
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -- A decade after the Pac-10 scrapped
its postseason basketball tournament, the conference announced
Monday it will hold the event again beginning in March 2002.
An eight-team men's tournament and a 10-team women's tournament
will be held at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The winners will
earn the conference's automatic NCAA bids.
The Pac-10's decision leaves the Ivy League as the only Division
I conference without a postseason tournament.
The conference had a men's tournament from 1987 through 1990 but
discontinued it, citing scheduling and attendance problems and
calling the tournament a distraction from the athletes' schoolwork.
"The (conference's) athletic directors have been working to
initiate a new tournament for the men's programs because of the
increased visibility it will provide the conference at the time of
year when college basketball is nationally highlighted," said
California athletics director John Kasser, who headed a conference
panel to bring the tournament back. "We believe the tournament
will be a major attraction on the Pacific coast."
That wasn't always the case, as school presidents cited a
decline in attendance at the tournament as one of the major
problems when it was discontinued.
No financial terms of the deal with Staples Center were
announced, and a league spokesman said no TV deal for the
tournament has been signed.
The Pac-10 has never held a women's tournament. Washington
senior women's administrator Marie Tuite chaired a group to plan
the women's event.
"The Pac-10 Tournament will be the culmination and highlight of
the women's season," Tuite said. "The television coverage and
other exposure it will provide our teams should assist us in
gaining berths in the NCAA championship and good seedings." | |
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