We hear the same line every year: The parity in women’s college golf continues to improve each season.
But does it really?
Twenty-four teams advanced to the NCAA Division I Women’s Championship this year at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. Of those twenty-four teams, all but one competes in a Power Five conference: Kent State. And in the college golf arena, the Golden Flashes are not looked at like a mid-major.
In years past, when making picks or talking about teams in the championship field, you might hear teams referred to as a “happy-to-be-here” team or one that could have a good week “if they catch lightning in a bottle.” That is not the case any longer.
When looking at the 24-team field, it was not a stretch to believe that a case could be made for any of them to make the 15-team cut after 54 holes.
Going a step further and looking at the number of teams likely to be among the top eight that advance to match play, that list is larger than normal, too. Proof of that is in this year’s Golfweek staff picks. Julie Williams, Beth Ann Nichols and myself listed 15 different teams when predicting how the eight-team match-play bracket would stack up. That number used to be much lower.
The word parity in women’s college golf has a new meaning. The parity is increasing within the Power Five leagues, not all of college golf.
This year two teams – Maryland and Virginia Tech – made their first trip to the national championship. Those two squads both compete in a Power Five conference. The last time a mid-major made its first trip to the finals was in 2011 when Coastal Carolina qualified out of the East Regional as the No. 17 seed.
So, is there really balance in women’s college golf? Or is it just that the bottom teams in the big conferences have gotten better?
Here we are this week at Grayhawk where half of the field making its third consecutive trip to the championship. That’s eleven Power Five teams and Kent State.
The numbers tell us a story, and it’s not one that mid-majors may want to hear. Teams that used to fall on the bottom tier of major conferences stack up differently now. They’ve closed the gap, or in some cases have passed what used to be traditional mid-major powers in women’s golf.
Will mid-majors still be a factor at the championship level of women’s golf or have we reached the end of an era?
When the NCAA went to three regionals for the first time in 2001, seven teams from mid-major conferences advanced to the finals. Those seven teams were Pepperdine, New Mexico, South Florida, San Jose State, Tulsa, New Mexico State and Kent State.
Following the 2001 championship, it was easy to think this could be a trend that could continue and possibly even grow. That is not what has happened. In fact, only one other time (in 2009) have we seen that many mid-major teams at the finals.
In the last six years of the four-regional format, only 15 mid-majors have advanced. That computes to just 10 percent. From 2001 to 2014 (in the three-regional format), 17 percent of the NCAA finals field was made up of mid-majors.
Junior golf getting deeper certainly translates to more schools being competitive, except it doesn’t seem to be the mid-major schools experiencing that phenomenon. Instead, it appears that the balance is staying within the major conferences.
Why is this? There are certainly many reasons, but most likely it comes down to the mighty dollar. The Power Five institutions have deeper pockets, and that translates to more effort and resources devoted to women’s golf.
When we compare the women’s and men’s games, the numbers are much different. When the men arrive at Grayhawk later this week, 10 of the 30 teams will be mid-majors.
Some may point to the .500 Rule as something that helps keep the balance, and maybe that’s true. Maybe the pool of players to choose from is deeper. Whatever the reason may be, it’s safe to say that parity in women’s golf is not what it is thought to be.
It’s actually a case of the rich seemingly getting richer.