I think we all did some channel-hopping over holiday break, bored, sitting on the couch, wishing something good was on.
That was my situation when I came upon the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championships on ESPN2.
I was hooked by a five-set gem. Defending champion Pennsylvania State hadn’t lost in 63 straight matches, and had not dropped a single set in 108 tries. How totally absurd.
But here they were, tied at 2-2, clinging to their tournament lives. They had just lost their first two sets of the year in the national semifinal to Nebraska, and now it was a first-to-15 tiebreaker for a ticket to the championship game against Stanford.
But for as great a college volleyball match as that was, I was genuinely bothered the entire time I watched.
The arena was red. I mean, totally red. Fifteen thousand people, all in red. Each and every person screaming their lungs out for the Huskers.
And why shouldn’t they? The game was at Quest arena, an hour away from the Nebraska Coliseum where the Cornhuskers play their home games.
That’s what I call a home game.
For as gallant a performance as the Huskers gave, I can’t help but think the home crowd, larger than any they ever had at their home arena, brought out the best in that team.
Once the Huskers showed their first signs of life in the third set, Quest went crazy, and Nebraska carried that momentum all the way into the fifth set, handing Penn State its only two set losses in 116 tries.
Thankfully, the better team came out on top that night. Blatant home court didn’t change the final outcome, although it sure made it close. If that match was played in Los Angeles, near neither school, Penn State would put away a deflated Nebraska team in three.
But the fact that a national semifinal game and a national championship game can be played on a “neutral court” that is far from neutral really is a sticking point for me. I felt bad for Penn State. You work all year to make it to this point and earn the No. 1 seed, only to play a road game to someone ranked lower than you when it matters most?
It’s the same story in women’s soccer. The College Cup currently rotates between sites in North Carolina and Texas. Let’s see, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels play in, well, North Carolina, and they have 19 national titles.
Texas A&M plays in Texas and the site for the College Cup is the Aggies’ home field. They win the Big 12 year in and year out, a perennial power in NCAA women’s soccer.
Coincidence? I think not.
In Carolina, where the Bruins traveled for their sixth straight trip to the College Cup, the scene is a sea of powder blue and sheer mind-numbing noise as the thousands of Tar Heel fans pound on the steel seats behind the benches.
“It’s a huge advantage,” UNC coach Anson Dorrance said of playing in his team’s home state. “We don’t pretend it’s not. As the season goes on you get worn down with travel and at this juncture you don’t want to travel. So just jumping in our vans and driving over here 25-30 minutes to Cary is wonderful for us, we consider it a great advantage, certainly it is a disadvantage for UCLA that they had to travel and we didn’t.”
What more needs to be said? This “neutral site” bologna is a straight-up advantage for certain teams that always contend for a title. If four teams work as hard as our college athletes do to make the semifinals, the places they play better be neutral, or darn close to it.
The reason the NCAA won’t change anything is because they are concerned about their attendance. It makes good business sense to hold a volleyball championship in a state crazed by volleyball. People will come, and thus people will pay. If the odds are good that the home team will make it, that means more behinds in seats and more money for the NCAA. Exactly the same thing applies to soccer.
If you too are irked by this false neutrality, e-mail Stevens at