Calculated growth. Perhaps that's the best way to describe Division I women's basketball these days -- calculated not only in the mathematical sense of the exponentially increased television exposure, skill level and fan base, but calculated in a strategic sense as well.

As Division I Women's Basketball Committee Chair Cheryl Marra says, "We've been able to develop the game at a high level without losing what it stands for. It's still very much an educational endeavor."

Indeed, women's basketball has been carefully nurtured as it nears its 25th anniversary as an NCAA championship sport. Much has changed since the first Women's Final Four tipped off in 1982, and most has been for the better. Curators of the women's game have patiently attracted viewers both in the stands and on the screen, the Women's Final Four sells out quickly and early, and the high-profile negative incidents that have been known to clutter other collegiate sports are relatively invisible in women's basketball.

While that's certainly the good news, the worry side of the ledger focuses on how to maintain the purity of a game whose growing attraction may make it susceptible to the ethical quandaries inherent in a high-profile sport.

"But being susceptible and actually caving are two different things," said Marra, one of the many influential players in the positive growth of the women's game. The senior woman administrator at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, now in her 14th year at the school, is an NCAA committee veteran and in her second year as chair of the basketball committee. Her biggest concern as women's basketball moves toward the kind of parity the men's game enjoys is that the pressure to win may cloud the choices institutions make about how to get there.

"If there is pressure to move toward parity, especially at the top, are you going to take short cuts?" Marra said. "Are you going to take some academic risks that you might not have before? Are you going to recruit in ways that might not be totally ethical? Do you need a quick fix to not lose your job? I think we are susceptible to that."

Such susceptibility is reduced, though, Marra said, because very few institutions rely on their women's basketball programs to produce the kind of revenues expected from the men's basketball program. If money is an evil root, Marra said it hasn't been planted yet.

"We're not yet being driven by the financial expectation," she said. "That doesn't mean that over time we won't be -- we may be moving closer to that -- but the one thing we still have in women's basketball is that family value attitude where ticket prices are reasonable and the event is family friendly. If the day comes, though, when the school president or athletics director tells the coach, 'You need to break even or make money,' there might be the motive to make changes."

Marra doesn't think that day will come in the next five years. Will it come in 10? "Maybe," she said.

The protective coating

M. Dianne Murphy, athletics director at the University of Denver, chairs a group charged in many ways with at least delaying that day's arrival. The Division I Women's Basketball Issues Committee, created about three years ago, is composed of 15 individuals, including coaches, student-athletes and athletics administrators who know the game's assets and are working to develop a protective coating by identifying potential problems well in advance.

Right now, those "problems" appear to be more about continuing to grow the game rather than applying corrective measures to an overgrown commodity.

"The purity of the game is its greatest asset. It's technique, it's a team game," said Murphy, whose 17 years in athletics administration includes stops at Cornell University and the University of Iowa. "It's passing, it's cutting, it's movement, it's post play and perimeter play. It's the positive image that our student-athletes and coaches portray. They graduate. They are good citizens. They are very involved in their communities. They are approachable."

All of that, Murphy said, is worth advancing through marketing, branding and improved television coverage. Those are some of the committee's primary objectives, along with maintaining a watchful eye on officiating, recruiting and student-athlete welfare.

Is the women's game susceptible to the same kinds of pressures the men's game faces? In some ways, Murphy said it is, but in others, it's an apples/oranges comparison.

"The women's game is not affected as much by agents, and perhaps some of the negative forces present in the men's recruiting environment during the summer aren't present in the women's game," she said. "I also don't think we have to deal with players leaving early like the men do."

Still, Murphy said, that's no reason to sit back and wait.

"We have to be ever mindful of recruiting issues, for example," she said, noting the growing involvement of "nonscholastic" coaches during the summer. "We have to be very careful about all the rules and regulations and make sure we maintain the integrity of the game."

"It's a threat when your nonscholastic summer schedule could have more games and competitions than your regular-season high-school schedule," said Beth Bass, CEO of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. "That's a concern."

Bass, who succeeded longtime WBCA leader Betty Jaynes in 2001, worries about the growing "club" culture in the summer. "When you become a club atmosphere and you get those kids out of the high-school system, it can become very 'prestigious.' That's very scary," Bass said. "We're hearing on the women's side that it's costing thousands of dollars for a girl to play AAU basketball for a summer."

Nora Lynn Finch, senior woman administrator at North Carolina State University and chair of the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet, agreed that the recruiting culture is one of the game's biggest concerns. She said it would be naive to think that the recruiting practices and pressures aren't more similar than they are dissimilar to those in the men's game.

"It's also naive to think that the people coaching and recruiting in women's basketball don't learn their trade primarily from the people in men's basketball," she said.

"When you talk about your talent brokers or your operators out there, the negative recruiting and funneling student-athletes to certain schools is an issue," Bass said. "That is a major threat."

To ensure that recruiting practices don't become problematic, Finch said campus and conference personnel need to apply more discipline when necessary.

"There appears to be a reluctance to spend much time investigating women's sports primarily because the men's sports require more attention," Finch said. "But the women's side will decline at a continued pace unless some discipline is appropriately administered."

The parity game

Other target areas for Murphy's basketball issues committee include increasing the officiating talent pool, growing attendance at the institutional level, and promoting parity among programs. "And I'm not talking about just the top 50," she said, "but in a broad-based model so that more teams emerge in the rankings. Not only will that translate into closer regular-season contests -- we'll have some upsets in the tournament, too. I think that's what makes the men's tournament so exciting."

Parity takes on many meanings in women's basketball discussions. Most point to a greater number of potential top-10s or top-20s, but the gap seems to occur further down. Sue Donohoe, NCAA vice-president for Division I women's basketball, said it's not uncommon anymore for a top-20 team to beat a top-10 team, but that it's still unusual for a middle or lower-half Division I team to upset a top-20 club, even at home. "We're seeing parity at the top," Donohoe said, "but not as much in the middle."

Interestingly, Bass points back to recruiting as an indicator that parity is on the rise, at least among the leading programs. She said while the case in football may be that the prospect already has decided on a college and uses one or two of his official visits as entertainment opportunities, prospects in women's basketball are more likely to need all five visits.

"We believe that our student-athletes are taking all of their opportunities to see campuses, meet the coaches and evaluate programs," Bass said. "They're not just making the choice between two or three high-profile programs -- there's much more opportunity out there now and a greater number of competitive programs."

Marra sees more schools making the financial commitment to women's basketball, which in turn builds parity as well. She said increased operating budgets, growing scholarship allocations and attractive coaches' salaries help different programs share the talent pool.

In addition, Marra said more teams are building national schedules because they are committing the resources necessary to do it. "People are getting out a little farther, and that creates parity, too," she said.

Bass said the national schedules also build women's basketball fans, not just fans who follow only certain programs. She said parity will grow with attendance.

"We need those programs that attract only 500 people to the games to attract 1,500," Bass said. "I call it the boot-strap approach -- you've got to reach down and help pull those people up and help them learn the best practices of how to market on campus, locally, regionally, and how to enjoy the trickle-down effects of the great success of our championship. That's how we're going to increase parity."

Reason to be optimistic

Perhaps the best news about the state of the game in women's basketball is that the primary concerns, those about the recruiting culture or succumbing to pressure by taking unethical short cuts, are just that -- concerns, not realities. It's a good "problem" to have when you have the time to plan for it.

And as the guardians of the women's game strive to achieve some of the good things the men's game boasts while still protecting its uniqueness, Marra said it will be up to the coaches to make the right choices.

"Some of the coaches who have brought us to this point -- over time they will begin to retire," Marra said. "The history and educational component of the game may shift. Some of the younger coaches who have not matriculated through the educational system like some of the more senior coaches may not understand how sports fit into the context of total education.

"The culture seems to be more winning-driven now, and there's more pressure on coaches, particularly on young coaches who might feel they have to prove themselves as someone who can get it done quickly. I hope we don't let the pressure of the media, the fans and others influence some of the short cuts available to take."

As for now, the women's game flourishes because it maintains integrity in its intent of developing student-athlete leaders.

"Our student-athletes are intelligent, refined, competitive, hard-working and friendly," Finch said. "Those qualities are going to carry our young athletes a long way in life and it pleases me to see them portraying those qualities on the basketball court, and beyond."

Leilana McKindra contributed to this story.