For many college golf teams, a good week at conference is imperative in getting to the postseason. It’s sometimes the only way in, in fact.
A year ago, Missouri State’s women were a favorite to win the Missouri Valley conference. A rough week left them in sixth even as freshman Abby Cavaiani won the individual crown. A tough conversation with coach followed.
Cavaiani was one of six players at AQ-earning conference championships whose season ended short of NCAA regionals despite winning the league title.
“It was hard to explain that,” Missouri State coach Kevin Kane said. “I didn’t really have a good explanation for it last year other than this is the way it’s always been.”
Should Cavaiani repeat this season, she’ll meet a different end. Over the summer, the NCAA Women’s Golf Committee recommended to the Competition Oversight Committee that conference champions earn an automatic spot in regionals. The new policy was adopted in October.
Ryan Colton, the associate athletic director at Richmond and the chair of the NCAA Women’s Golf Committee, said that parents and coaches had brought up the issue over the years, prompting a summer discussion. Committee members saw it as a positive change and a necessary one.
“We discussed it, we thought about it, thought it would be the right thing to do for the game and a lot of those student-athletes to have access and play their way into the championship,” Colton said.
Interestingly, the Competition Oversight Committee also considered a recommendation from the NCAA Women’s Golf Committee to expand the regional sites from four to six, effective for the 2023 championships. The COC has tabled the request until the NCAA Division I Championships Finance Review Working Group can complete a study.
Men’s individual conference champions have advanced to NCAA regionals for years – since their regional format was expanded from four to six sites in 2010. This will be the first year that the rule is the same for the women.
Pete Stankevich coaches the men’s and women’s teams at the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut. His is an unusual situation with the men competing in the Big Sky conference and the women competing in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Stankevich had coached individual conference champions on the men’s side but never the women’s – until last spring.
In April, then-sophomore Maria Loza won the conference title at Disney’s Magnolia Course in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. After play, other coaches began asking what regional site Stankevich would like to see Loza play. The general assumption was that women’s conference champions would receive a ticket to regionals just like the men did.
Stankevich said he was a bit surprised when he confirmed that Loza wouldn’t be advancing. That said, the opportunity exists now and Loza is a strong candidate for a repeat.
“She still has two cracks at getting an NCAA bid going forward,” he said. “Looking forward to her maybe defending her title and maybe getting that elusive pick.”
Northern Colorado head coach Ben Portie also had a player in that boat. Portie said he wasn’t too clear going into the week what would happen if his sophomore Beah Cruz won the Big Sky Conference individual title but had confirmed she wouldn’t move on by the time Cruz had won the title – in a playoff, no less.
Portie and Cruz held out hope for a few days, thinking Cruz’s year-long performance might merit an at-large bid into regionals. Ultimately, she was not selected.
There’s the other side of this policy change: Regional fields aren’t expanding, so individual conference champions will take spots that otherwise would be awarded on an at-large basis. Having had a player who had a real chance at qualifying both ways, Portie still supports the change.
“I’m in favor that our individual conference champion should go,” he said. “I know it might take away a few spots but Beah deserved it last year I thought. She played real well even leading up to it. Had a second-place finish the week before, was really hot – was playing some very good golf – and I thought would have continued to play some very good golf at regionals if she had gone.”
Kane, the Missouri State coach, likens it to the NCAA basketball tournament. In college golf, players from Power-5 schools have every opportunity to play in big tournaments against top teams for a chance to improve their ranking and earn a postseason pick. Mid-majors may not have those opportunities, which makes the conference route that much more important.
“I’m always going to side with somebody at a place like ours that goes ahead and wins their championship,” Kane said. “I guess I’m always going to be pulling for the little guy.”
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