With some financial backing from US Water Polo and teams paying their own travel expenses, the tournament structure helped increase the number of opportunities for women's water polo teams. Travel expense reimbursement and event organization are just a few of the benefits of the championship's new NCAA status. It means more to win an NCAA championship than a collegiate championship. All our student-athletes have grown up watching the basketball Final Fours and seeing what it means to win. So, being part of that tradition now means a lot to them.
Attention turns to growth.
Exposure is expected to be the greatest benefit the NCAA can offer to women's water polo. In 1997, women's rowing became the first sport to go from emerging to championship status, and Jan Harville, the rowing coach at the University of Washington, noticed the difference right away. Here's the band coming out to meet us, and here are all these reporters. But that's what the NCAA means to the public. I think the attention helps our sport and helps our institutions.