The best descriptor for women’s basketball’s recent past also applies to the game’s long-term future: It’s all about growth. With that in mind, NCAA President Myles Brand has charged key leaders in the sport to figure out how to manage the game’s expanding horizon.

The Division I Women’s Basketball Enhancement Discussion Group, which Brand chairs, will meet for the first time February 27-28 in Indianapolis to begin charting women’s basketball’s future course. The group has a good head start, since the game already is on solid ground. In the last three years alone, women’s basketball has achieved new heights.

• Last year was the third consecutive year that ESPN and ESPN2 broadcast live all 63 tournament games. It also was the first year to feature eight predetermined sites for the first and second rounds, a shift from the previous format of 16 predetermined campus sites for those games. The 2005 Women’s Final Four sold out for the 14th consecutive year.
• The 2004 national championship game between the University of Connecticut and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was the second most-viewed basketball game (men or women, college or professional) in ESPN’s 25-year history.
• This year for the first time, the tournament will have its own “Selection Monday” in prime time, a shift from previous years in which the women’s selections were sandwiched between the Big 12 Conference men’s final and the start of the men’s selection show on CBS. Many people felt that trying to balance two major selection announcements in a compressed time slot stressed viewers who wanted comprehensive coverage and analysis of both brackets. Now, each tournament has its own strategic selection spotlight.
• With popularity and exposure at an all-time high, more schools are devoting resources to their programs, which has translated into new faces rising to the top. Not only is there more parity among an expanding elite level, but the once distinctive gap between the top 10 or 15 teams and the rest of the field has closed dramatically. Last year’s champion Baylor University was a first-timer in the Final Four, and the Bears bumped three No. 1 seeds to get to the top. Other new Final Four faces in recent years include Michigan State University; the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; and the University of Oklahoma.

So...if the game has never been better, what is left to achieve?

Plenty, according to NCAA President Brand. “Any smart organization works hard to protect and nurture its assets,” he said. “Women’s basketball, particularly the Division I tournament, is important to the NCAA. It already is a great game, which might make people wonder why we think it needs attention. On the contrary, because it is a great game is precisely why we need to make sure it continues to grow. That requires careful and sustained attention from people who can effect change.”

The discussion group has a wide-open charge, Brand said, and its composition is a deliberate cross section of stakeholders to include diverse perspectives. Of the 30 members, eight are head coaches, including Tennessee’s Pat Summitt and Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma. Beth Bass, chief executive officer of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, also fortifies the coaches’ voice.

Six members are athletics directors, including American University’s Joni Comstock, current chair of the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee. Four conference officials, including Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Weiberg, are members, as are four student-athletes, including last year’s Wade Trophy winner Seimone Augustus from Louisiana State University. Representatives from ESPN, Fox Sports and College Sports Television also are on the roster.

While the agenda has not been finalized, some of the more pressing issues the game has faced in recent years include managing an expanding and increasingly challenging nonscholastic environment, settling on a recruiting calendar everyone accepts, and marketing the game to a growing fan base.

Two initiatives have helped build momentum in that regard. Last year’s legislative package developed by the WBCA realized success in the governance structure, as several proposals that increased coach access to student-athletes and brought what some people called “more sanity” to recruiting rules were adopted.

In addition, a recent branding campaign identified unique attributes upon which to anchor the game’s growth. Those attributes distinguish women’s basketball from any other sport, and the newly created enhancement group will use them as a solid foundation from which to build their future agenda.

“Over the last several years, there has been a lot of talk about the growth of women’s basketball and what will be the ‘change agents’ in the near future,” said Sue Donohoe, NCAA vice president for Division I women’s basketball. “Where is the game going? How will it get there? There has been a sense of urgency to identify the critical issues and figure out ways to affect the growth of the game from the standpoint of fan support, institutional resource commitments, sportsmanship, television exposure and even the style of play.

“Because there are so many varied opinions about what those critical issues are and what needs to be done about them, President Brand decided that the right thing to do is to bring some of the game’s primary leaders to the table to develop strategies for the future. What we have is an opportunity to make an already great game even better.”

Having the NCAA president chair the group is telling, Donohoe said.

“It’s an extraordinary and unique opportunity to have the president of the NCAA show enough interest in and commitment to our game to lead a group of high-profile leaders in discussions about its future,” she said.

With the first meeting being conducted during the stretch run of the regular season, Brand said he does not expect full attendance, since many of the coaches and student-athletes will be involved in preparing for games. Nonetheless, he said, the initiative is important enough to tip off right away. He said another meeting could be conducted at the Final Four in Boston, since most of the committee members already will be there. In addition, another meeting will be scheduled after the season ends.

Beyond that, no timetable has been established for additional meetings or when the group might deliver preliminary recommendations. Nor has it been decided how long the group will remain a standing committee. Donohoe said that hasn’t mattered to those asked to serve.

“Their responses have gone beyond ‘I’d be happy to be a member’ to ‘I’d be honored to be a member,’ ” Donohoe said. “That speaks volumes about how important the growth of the game is to these people.”