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Wednesday, October 28, 2015


by Bobby Knight, College Tennis Today
























What fans can do to help grow the sport:













Rob Gurden said...

Love it Bobby!

Jeff said...

Bobby - I was really excited for this post when Colette mentioned it was coming. It didn't disappoint. You've been a huge contributor to college tennis in recent years and your effort doesn't go unnoticed, so thank you.

You've made some great recommendations that I hope people reading this website look at (cough ITA/USTA/NCAA cough). But I want to focus on the recommendations for the local level and what the school can be doing. I'll admit that while I'm a huge college tennis fan, I'm ignorant to the resources it requires to run a lot of the operations you talk about (website, twitter, fan events). Given that at most schools tennis is a very low priority, I imagine it's just one of many sports that an SID would cover. While you have a lot of great ideas for how a school with many dedicated staffed resources could improve their offerings, is this feasible for most schools? I can't imagine many schools have the resources or budget to plan fan events, do promotions, social media, live blog, live stream, online recap. I get the impression (again though I'm totally ignorant) that what schools provide now is not because they wouldn't want to do more but rather because they can't. I'd like to get your thoughts, or others who are more familiar with SID logistics, to comment on how feasible these (great) ideas are for the majority of schools.

fan said...

No mention of dbls, disappointing. "college tennis is an exciting sport that is action-packed from start to finish" thought that meant dbls. As someone commented on the rule change issue here, sgls just doesn't cut it.

Brent said...

Bobby, good stuff. Appreciate you sharing.

Pablo said...


I agree with everything you said expect for No. 7 (Play all matches to their conclusion unless it's during tournament play). Once a team clinches the dual match, fans are in a hurry to exit. All the excitement has left the building. It's time to go home and try again on another day. Usually the remaining matches are boring and ho-hum, actually having a negative effect on spectator enthusiasm, which can spill over to subsequent matches.

Bobby said...

You're correct it likely isn't feasible for most schools to do an in-match blog though I'd like to think that more of the bigger schools who do have the resources could swing it. There used to be more that did it but either the numbers weren't there or the resources went away.

The number of schools that stream has actually gone up a good bit in recent years with 24 of 52 Power 5 (ACC, B1G, B12, PAC12, SEC) schools now offering it on the men's side - well actually I guess that'd be 19 since the 5 SEC schools that did stream can't now due to the SEC Network deal which prohibits it. For non-power 5 the numbers are low and it'd take a donation to be able to buy the equipment etc.

For the non-power 5 schools where budgets are much, much tighter the streaming and blog wouldn't likely be as possible but I'd like to think someone (volunteer/player not in the starting lineup) could help with twitter updates/live scoring. Lots of schools have club teams or intramurals so if approached I'd like to think that 1 or 2 people would be interested in helping for home matches. It'd be good for the resume and if your student that likes/plays tennis why not volunteer your time for a sport you love.

I get that the SID's can be spread pretty thin so if they are looking for help with writing match recaps why not go to the journalism department and see if there are some students that'd like to write for the school website. If someone is an aspiring journalist (especially if they like sports) then they'd probably be chomping at the bit to write something that'd get read by the masses. The school wouldn't have to pay anything because the student would benefit by working on their craft plus they'd be building a collection of writing samples.

I think the biggest untapped resource is the student body - there's no way a school with 5000+ undergrads (heck even 2000 undergrads) doesn't have at least 10 tennis nuts (I use that term in a good way) that would be willing to help with the tennis program.

I agree it would be interesting to hear an SID chime in on the struggles they face.

just saying said...

Scheduling matters. The huge UGA crowd in your picture is from an early Saturday evening match. UGA (Isner/Flores) played UCLA in the quarters of the NCAAs that year. UGA actually had a clearly bigger crowd for Saturday's quarters than they did for Monday's early afternoon semis vs. UVa. I also think the Tuesday afternoon finals vs. Illinois had fewer fans as well.
It seems like a Saturday, Sunday or even Monday final for the team event would create a better crowd for the best match.

If the latter stages of the NCAAs had 8 teams each for the men/women, you could wrap the event around a long weekend.

Bobby, thanks for your coverage of college tennis

Craig Bell said...

Bobby - great article on the state of college tennis! As a former collegiate player myself, from back in the late 70's and early 80's - what I consider the "golden era" of college tennis, I think college tennis needs to do something to wake up to the fact that the sport is in the declining mode and not on the path of an "elite" college sport. I'd be interested in sending you a few thoughts I've sent to the USTA and Wayne Bryan - let's just I didn't hear back from the USTA and Wayne and I have become very good email friends.

I'd enjoy hearing from anyone for that matter - you can reach me at cbell1360@aol.com
Craig Bell

tommy richards said...

To really improve college tennis we need to change the team match to 3 singles, 2 doubles and a player can not play both. The 5 matches would start at the same time and within 2 -2.5 hours you would have a completed match. It also would expand the playing opportunities for more players (7 verses 6 needed per match).... many of us don't enjoy singles but LOVE dubs ! (which is what most people play for FUN)
Tennis and squash assoc. need to realize that singles and doubles are two totally different games ... don't slight doubles (pro-set, 3 matches equals 1 point) highlight doubles .... fans like teams ! ..... worth a look ?

Darren Ford said...

I take my wife and son to watch Oklahoma play and we enjoy it. My son plays and it is great for him to see the live action up close. We have enjoyed watching very good squads play high level tennis. However, here is my issue locally. We have two of the nicest college facilities in Oklahoma and Oklahoma State and some top teams and players in the country, but you wouldn't know it unless you follow college tennis. The local sports stations (TV/Radio both) barely mention anything...ever. I understand that around here with college football teams and the OKC Thunder NBA team, its an uphill battle trying to compete. Part of it is awareness in my opinion, but the local news outlets aren't going to cover it if it isn't generating interest. It's a Catch 22. I have noticed some of the local tennis facilities have been putting money into renovating and trying to drum up more interest.

College Teams Need Support said...

My son played tennis at a D-1 non-football school...basketball was the main sport. The different sport teams from the school would support other by attend each other's games--thus an audience for the games and the player's on the other teams usually bring someone with them...sometimes exposing someone to tennis who had never watched it played live before. Maybe some supporting cooperation between teams would also help like at my son's school👍

Bobby said...

College Teams Need Support, getting the other sports teams to show up is definitely a great idea. Some of them have overlapping seasons but several don't. I see pictures on twitter all the time with the tennis team at the volleyball match or soccer game so hopefully those teams reciprocate.

Darren, you're right getting publicity from radio/tv is going to be tough - the SID would probably have to know someone at a TV/Radio station or would have to hound them to get them to acknowledge tennis. The school would probably have to do the legwork on a 10-15 second highlight clip to send in and then maybe it might get shown. I guess it would vary market by market because in a bigger market the stations would already have enough material but in a college town or small market that revolves around the college they'd have a shot.

Tommy, I think formats like those that you mentioned should be looked at and maybe even experimented with in the future. Many of the local leagues I've played in have that split doubles/singles format and almost all the USTA leagues are like that too. I think more people would understand that format than trying to explain no-ad and pro-sets.

In my opinion before the format gets changed anymore the schools need to figure out how to get more people to show up. If only 20 people are showing up the format being played really won't matter.

Cory said...

Nice post Bobby. But, for me, not a fan of no ad.