For some, seven is a lucky number. But for women's collegiate bowling, like other emerging sports, the lucky number was 40. That is the number of sponsoring institutions required for a sport to reach NCAA championship status.

In April, women's bowling, with 42 varsity programs, completed the last frame in that regard when the Divisions I, II and III governance structures gave their final approvals and got the championship ball rolling.

Tentatively slated as a winter event, the first National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championship will occur during the 2003-04 academic year, thanks to legislation that allows a championship for an emerging sport to be established within a year after the minimum sponsorship number is achieved.

Now that the championship has weaved its way through the legislative process, the next critical step is to establish a women's bowling committee. Solicitations went out in May, and the six-member group should be identified after the Divisions I, II and III Management Council meetings in July.

The new committee's charge will be formidable -- turning legislation into reality in about nine months. Facing the group will be decisions regarding the structure of the championship, playing rules, facility selection and team selection criteria.

College Bowling USA (CBUSA), which has served as a primary resource and a governing body for the sport, has recommended a championship structure similar to the one it uses for its own championship, the Intercollegiate Bowling Championships. The format calls for eight five-member teams to compete in match play. Teams winning four of seven games bowled in a so-called "Baker format" would advance through the bracket. The format draws its name from the late Frank Baker, the former executive director of the American Bowling Congress who developed the format.

'Bowling relay'

In the Baker format, each bowler on the team bowls two frames per game. For example, the first bowler would bowl frames one and six, the second would bowl frames two and seven, and so on.

"Essentially, it's like a bowling relay," said Brian Graham, director of collegiate bowling at CBUSA.

Graham said though the CBUSA championship has gone through several changes, it has settled on the Baker format because it's easy for fans and media to understand and exciting for the participating teams.

"It's because of the intensity and the excitement, and it's spectator friendly," Graham said. "It's also media friendly. People understand it. And anyone can win. Once you get there, literally, the team that plays the best is the one that will come out on top."

Since bowling Baker format means that every frame of every game carries serious significance, intensity builds for teams and fans alike. But, perhaps more importantly, it puts the onus squarely on teams to work together to win.

"The format pulls it together more as a team sport than a standard format," said Jeanne Klescewski, varsity bowling manager at CBUSA. "The five athletes depend on one another. One bad frame could throw their game. To me, such an interdependency on one another makes it more interesting.

"Even for television, the Baker format is much more interesting to watch. If a team's psychological game is not there, then they're done."

Not everyone is convinced that the Baker format is the best option, however. Bill Straub, head bowling coach at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, sees the debate between the Baker format and a more standard structure, where each member of the team would bowl 10 frames and the combined scores would determine the team score, as a tug between spectator appeal versus what's good for the game.

"It depends on whether you're looking at the issue from an entertainment perspective or what's best for the sport," he said. "Regardless of the sport, though, in order to prove who's the best you want continual scoring."

Straub said he prefers having competitors bowl for a number of days, then determine a winner by the highest pinfall. He said the caveat with such a structure, however, is that it could lessen the spectator appeal, especially if one team jumps in front early.

"But I want to do what's best for the sport," he said.

That may mean some sort of compromise among two or more formats. Straub's primary concern is not having a format based too much on luck.

"This Baker business was put together to increase spectator appeal," he said. "The downside is that it dramatically increases the luck factor. I'd like to have luck be minimized as much as possible without losing crowds. Like any other sport, the format has to have an entertainment value. You have to make sure that the people watching the event are enjoying themselves. But I don't want to have that be at the expense of the sport itself."

As there are choices the committee will have to make regarding championship format, so will there be choices about where to conduct the event. Two possibilities almost immediately jump to the forefront: commercial bowling centers or athletics arenas.

One of the main advantages of a commercial bowling center is that lanes already are installed and all the appropriate equipment already is in place. That helps keep costs down and simplifies administration of the tournament. The downside for commercial centers, though, is spectator seating. While temporary bleachers can be installed, there's only so much room for them.

Hosting the championship in an athletics stadium or arena makes the space issue moot, but the cost to import lanes, equipment and bleachers is high.

But CBUSA's Graham said that an arena would provide a better atmosphere for the bowlers.

"An arena setting can get very costly, but the benefits are that you can open the space up and accommodate larger crowds," he said. "The interesting thing about stadiums is that they provide a stage for the athletes. I think that's very important in any sport."

Novella Franklin, head coach at Florida A&M University, said she prefers the arena approach as well.

"That means you could hold it anywhere. It won't restrain anyone from bidding," she said.

Franklin also is interested in increasing the number of spectators because it means more exposure for the bowlers.

Nebraska's Straub said he doesn't see the advantage of housing the championship in a commercial bowling center.

"The commercial centers these days aren't there for spectators. They're there as entertainment centers," he said. "The proprietor of that establishment is first focused on how he's going to entertain the clientele. Because of that, I think it's far better if our event were in a regular athletics arena where portable lanes are brought in for the express purpose of the tournament."

Obviously, without a committee established or dates set, no bids have been solicited from potential hosts, and no decisions have been made about what types of facilities will be used.

Determining rules of play

Though the committee will have to make difficult decisions about tournament structure and location, deciding what rules to play by may not be so challenging. According to Keanah Smith, NCAA assistant director of championships, the committee will at some point write NCAA rules and guidelines for women's bowling, but until then, CBUSA regulations probably will be modified for NCAA use.

"The Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet gave the committee a secretary-rules editor, which means we will write the rules ourselves, but that may be problematic in the short term," Smith said. "The committee likely will take the College Bowling rules and modify them for the first year or two."

Despite the aggressive timeline from the creation of the championship to the actual event, expectations are high.

"It's very exciting," said Smith. "Once we have a committee established, there will be plenty of resources to assist members in making critical decisions. We have a number of current collegiate coaches who have been involved with the sport for a long time, and the people at College Bowling USA have been helpful as well.

"The National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championship will exhibit the same quality that people have come to expect from any NCAA postseason event."

Bowling may be perfect game

In addition to the more than 40 NCAA schools sponsoring varsity bowling programs, a significant number of schools are hovering at the club level, which gives college women's bowling a bright future.

According to Brian Graham, director of collegiate bowling at College Bowling USA, there are about 70 collegiate club teams dotting the national landscape from coast to coast.

Jeanne Klescewski, varsity bowling manager at College Bowling USA, also said that bowling programs are quickly sprouting at the high-school level. Ten states currently recognize bowling as a high-school varsity sport. There are more than 40 states with club or varsity competition.

"What we're finding is that the children who participate in bowling aren't typically involved in other sports or extracurricular activities affiliated with their school," said Klescewski. "So schools see them as another group they can reach out to through sports participation."

Graham said the initial draw for many schools to women's bowling revolved around Title IX compliance, but that other benefits to bowling sponsorship include the relatively low-cost addition of a women's team and easy access to facilities.

Also, perhaps notably at this juncture, is the number of historically black colleges and universities sponsoring women's bowling, which adds to the sport's diverse makeup.

As sponsorship grows, it's unclear whether women's bowling will continue to have a high percentage of ethnic-minority participants.

"It's hard to say whether that trend will maintain momentum," Graham said, "but it's tremendous that (historically black colleges and universities) took the initiative in developing bowling programs. I think they've had a tremendous amount of success. Those coaches and athletics directors are very pleased with the results they've seen so far.

"And from an industry standpoint, we're extremely pleased with the NCAA's recognition. That means big things for the bowling industry. It will help us reach more youth and cater to those people already interested in the sport. We see bowling doing nothing but getting bigger."

-- Leilana McKindra