The NCAA is tapping into athletics administrators’ competitive spirit to help grow Division I women’s basketball during the regular season by launching a “Pack the House Challenge” that determines winners through competition at the gate rather than on the floor.

Every Division I women’s program and conference is invited to participate in the national competition to “Pack the House” at selected home games between January 1 and February 17. Conference members will compete among themselves and against all Division I institutions to earn the 2008 NCAA Women’s Basketball “Pack the House Challenge” championship.

The idea is to provide incentives for new ideas to expand an already growing fan base. The Women’s Final Four has played before sellout crowds since 1993, but women’s basketball stakeholders see opportunities to grow the game at the grass-roots level. The “Pack the House Challenge” adds to those opportunities.

The game within the game already is a big hit. More than 150 institutions already have beaten the December 3 sign-up deadline.

“Our athletics administrators and women’s basketball coaches bought into this right away,” said Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Commissioner Rich Ensor, whose league was the first to have all its members commit to the challenge.

Schools predetermine one home game as its “Pack the House” entry. Marketing staffs are required to submit their promotional plans and the attendance results for the game to the NCAA national office. The promotional plans will be compiled into a best-practices resource for future use. The “Pack the House” effort can be a stand-alone campaign or part of an existing promotion at the institution. The goal is for each institution to eclipse its previous year’s single-game attendance record.

Thirty-two institutions (one from each of the 31 conferences and one from independent institutions) will be selected as a “Pack the House” champion, depending on how well they meet the marketing creativity and attendance criteria. The NCAA will donate $500 to a nonprofit organization of each winning institution’s choice.

The “Pack the House Challenge” emanated from conversations within the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Discussion Group, chaired by NCAA President Myles Brand, with support from the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee and Division I Women’s Basketball Issues Committee.

“There is a prevailing sentiment to build on the success and prepare for the next generation of women’s college basketball student-athletes and fans,” said Sue Donohoe, vice president of Division I women’s basketball. “The ‘Pack the House Challenge’ is another opportunity to further develop grass-roots programs aimed at increasing attendance and awareness in the sport.”

Big 12 Conference Associate Commissioner Dru Hancock said her conference will dovetail the challenge with an already planned promotion February 9-10 in which the league’s six programs that traditionally draw the most fans plan for sellout crowds. “Pack the House” gives the other six programs another date to promote, Hancock said.

“In the last decade, the on-campus support from the administrators in our conference has been strong,” Hancock said. “That support gives coaches the resources to build a solid program, and everyone is redoubling their marketing and promotions efforts.

“Most women’s basketball coaches will tell you if you come to a game, you’ll get hooked on it. In some ways, it’s just a matter of getting people to a game the first couple of times. We want to get people coming back time after time. ‘Pack the House’ is a good way to get the ball rolling.”

A similar program will be conducted with preliminary-round hosts for the Division I Women’s Basketball Championship. The winning host from both the first and second rounds and the regionals will win a trip to the Women’s Final Four in Tampa.

For more information on the “Pack the House Challenge,” contact Mary Eiland (meiland@ncaa.org) or Kellie Leeman (kleeman@ncaa.org) at the NCAA national office.