Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 12/15/20
Staff Report
In an decision tied to financial complications associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA has announced that all Division II national tournaments will have smaller fields.
The NCAA released its winter and spring championship tournament numbers and the men’s tourney will shrink 17 percent with the women’s field being hit with a massive 25 percent reuction in teAMS.
The new bracket sizes reveal that the Division II men’s tournament will go from 12 teams to 10, and the women’s tournament will go from 16 teams to 12.
The release noted that reductions were made to alleviate expected budget shortfalls, specifically as the Division II budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year faces challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The field and bracket size reductions of the 18 Division II 2021 winter and spring championships vary by sport, with 12 of them being reduced by 25 percent,” according to the NCAA announcement. “The reductions were initially recommended by each sport committee. The Division II Championships Committee and the Division II Planning and Finance Committee each approved the recommendations. The reductions that are more or less than 25 percent were made because of logistical or practical concerns with operating that sport’s championship.”
The NCAA cited monetary concerns from the loss of fans as part of the reason but also acknowledged that increased costs surrounding COVID testing and other safety protocols were factored into the budgets and new playoff plans.
“Additionally, Division II needed to use nearly $5 million from its reserves to cover expenses for the 2019-20 fiscal year,” the NCAA said in its release. “Lost revenue from the cancellation of the Division I Men’s Basketball Championships caused Division II to be allocated nearly $35 million less than it was projected for the 2019-20 fiscal year. Division II did receive $15 million in event cancellation insurance — part of $270 million the NCAA received between multiple policies — that helped mitigate the financial impact.”
Though nothing official was been announced for the Division III field, Inside Lacrosse reported Monday that similar downsizing is expected.
Matt Kinnear of IL wrote that the proposed bracket would shrink from 36 to 28 teams.
It is not expected that the 28 teams – 27 of which would be conference champions – will be able to participate. It is significant that the NESCAC, one of the nation’s conferences, has canceled spring sports in 2020.
