We have a little problem here. If you are not aware already, the NCAA has a rule that teams with a record under .500 are not eligible to compete in the NCAA Championships at the end of every season. Year after year we witness several teams scrambling to schedule cupcake matches against inferior opponents in order to boost their record. I, for one, am getting tired of this happening every season, and now it has DEFINITELY gone too far.

Last week, the Arkansas women’s team had a great run all the way to the semifinals of the SEC Tournament. The Razorbacks entered as the #11 seed, and defeated #14 Missouri, #6 Auburn, and #3 South Carolina before falling to #2 Florida in the semis.

The Hogs were not ranked in the top-50 by the ITA at the time, but their SEC tourney run was good enough to give them hopes of receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The only issue was that Arkansas’ record was still only 10-16, nowhere near the .500 mark required to be eligible. Head Coach Michael Hegarty decided he needed to take matters into his own hands and exploit a loophole in order to make sure his team would be competing in May.

Last Sunday, Arkansas scheduled SIX matches against Tennessee State! I repeat, SIX matches in one day! Well, the Razorbacks didn’t have much of an alternative because at 10-16 they needed all six to get back to .500. I think everyone can agree that this is utterly ridiculous. Playing six matches for over 14 hours in one day isn’t healthy for anyone involved.

Of course, the Hogs won all six matches and evened their record at 16-16. Here is the problem though; college tennis is the only sport I can think of that allows teams to randomly schedule matches at the end of the season. This doesn’t happen in football, basketball, soccer, or baseball, so why is it allowed in tennis?

As long as it is within the rules to schedule matches against inferior opponents that weren’t on the schedule at the beginning of the year, this loophole will continue to get exploited. There are a couple of solutions that could help resolve this issue.

Number one is that the NCAA should remove the .500 criteria in order to be eligible for the NCAA Championships. This is the easiest and best possible solution in my mind. If a team is ranked high enough to earn an at-large bid into the tournament, who cares what their record is? Power-5 schools play extremely difficult schedules and it can be tough to have a .500 record. If they have several good wins throughout the season though, and are ranked high enough, then that team deserves to be in the tournament regardless of their record.

In my opinion, playing an extremely difficult schedule should be rewarded, not frowned upon. I think it’s obvious the Arkansas women’s team is good enough and deserves an at-large bid. There was no need to play Tennessee State six times in one day. What did that really accomplish for either squad? Let’s just award the most-deserving teams bids into the tournament and that will eliminate this ridiculousness.

Secondly, I think the schedules should be locked once they are published in the beginning of the season. We see this in all other sports. Once the schedule is out, that is the schedule that gets played. Nothing changes, and I’m not sure why college tennis can’t follow this the same way. There’s a reason why the NCAA doesn’t allow football teams to schedule extra games at the end of the year in order to become bowl-eligible. This is the same principle. Don’t let anyone add any dates to their schedule, and we won’t have this problem.

I really hope one of these two solutions gets implemented sooner rather than later. This isn’t the first incident of sub-.500 team scheduling multiple matches in one day against an inferior opponent to boost their record. It actually happens every year. All I know is the loophole will continue to get exploited if nothing changes. Coaches are under pressure to win. Can we really blame Arkansas for doing this? Nothing was done illegally.

If I was the Tennessee State coach though, I would have respectfully declined the offer. I wouldn’t put my student-athletes through 14 hours of brutality like that. I’m sure those girls had finals to study for or something. Let’s see if the NCAA can own up to this and make a change.

What are your thoughts on this crazy scheduling situation? Let us know in the comments below.