Perhaps a rite of passage that determines whether a sport has "arrived" is the type of media coverage it receives. Old Dominion University women's coach Wendy Larry in fact called the media coverage "the greatest upgrade in the women's game."

But is there a line that can be crossed when it comes to how the media treats the tournaments or the committee members responsible for selecting the field?

In recent years, the Selection Sunday scrutiny has been louder and more critical than ever before, particularly with the men's committee. In 2003 for example, studio hosts from CBS, the NCAA's very own network partner, openly challenged the committee about placing the top two seeds so that they would meet in the national semifinal instead of the final, about choosing a team as a top seed over what they believed was a more-deserving team from the same conference, and about sending the better-seeded of two teams from the same region away from its home area.

With the influx of entertainment into sports journalism these days, it has become almost expected for the committee chairs to have a hot seat in March. USA Today media columnist Rudy Martzke in fact wrote recently that "questioning of the committee's seedings, pairings and match-ups should be viewed as a normal rite of March, not overstepping journalistic bounds."

"The criticism in 2003 was tougher, in part because there were some controversial decisions," said CBS Sports Senior Vice-President of Programming Mike Aresco. "It's also a function of the passion and interest our guys have in the tournament. The criticism is never out of malice, only out of the interest in getting the information to the viewers. So if they do see something controversial they certainly will want to talk about it."

Aresco said when it comes to the announcers analyzing, "You want them to have editorial discretion, but you want to avoid personal attacks."

"Their watch words are to be respectful and fair," Aresco said. "Over the years our show has been pretty measured compared to some of the other networks. The world we live in is such that people are much more willing to take on controversy, but our guys try to be fair, balanced and tasteful. You won't see personal attacks."

The women's committee is starting to be more scrutinized as well. ESPN announcers criticized the committee for choosing seven teams from the Big East Conference in 2003. Committee Chair Cheryl Marra, though, wasn't offended.

"If they know we went seven deep in the Big East, at least it means they're doing their homework and buying into what we have as a tournament," she said. But Marra warned that while the committee's decisions are fair game, the criticism should be tempered with a good dose of knowing what the committee goes through. "If they don't appreciate what it takes to make the selections, then it's not fair to be overly critical," she said.

"We push our commentators to be opinionated," said Tina Thornton, ESPN's coordinating producer of the Division I Women's Basketball Championship. "Our commentators are our experts. We want to know what they think and why. People may disagree with their opinions; however, viewers will respect them more for providing those opinions."

Larry said it's hard to say that the media covering the women's game are doing so with a heavier hand than 10 or 15 years ago because there was so little coverage then.

"The media didn't have a standard years ago because they didn't know who we were," she said. "But because of the growth of the game over the last several years, there is more scrutiny. It's not all just punch and cookies anymore on the women's side. If that were the case there would be a number of coaches in the women's game who still had jobs."

Men's committee Chair Bob Bowlsby said in some ways it may be true that the scrutiny is slanted more toward the controversial. "But networks are competing with the Internet and with the sports talk shows," he said. "The volume on all the scrutiny is going up but that goes with the territory. One of the opportunities you have as a committee member is to develop a trusting relationship with a lot of media around the country, and I enjoy that aspect of it."

-- Gary T. Brown