Edie Grossfield

Article / Updated 02-22-2024

Listen to the article:Download audio March Madness is the nickname for the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Division I basketball tournament, one of the most exciting championship events in women’s sports. Happening alongside the men’s March Madness, the tournament always begins in mid-March. And like the men’s contest, it involves 68 teams (of the approximately 350 Division I women’s teams). Thirty-two teams are automatically entered into March Madness; the remaining 34 are selected by the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee, which bases its selection on how the teams performed during the regular season. The committee also seeds the teams, meaning they rank the teams and decide where to “plant” them within the tournament bracket. These rankings are announced on Selection Sunday. Four of these 68 teams are eliminated during the opening round of the tournament, called the First Four. The basketball committee then divides the remaining 64 teams into four regions of 16 teams each, and they are ranked 1 through 16. Each team’s rank is referred to as their seed. Where the games are played At the beginning of the tournament, the games are played on campus sites. The 2023 regional rounds — Sweet 16, Elite 8, and Final Four — will be played at two sites: Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle and Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina. The championship game will be at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Here is the 2024 schedule, for the women’s March Madness: Selection Sunday: March 17 (brackets, seeds, and team selections) First four: March 20-21 First round: March 22-23 Second round: March 24-25 Sweet 16: March 29-30 Elite Eight: March 31-April 1 Final Four: April 5 National Championship: April 7 You can watch games on ESPN and Sling TV. ABC will broadcast the title game. The 2023 top seeds The heavy favorite of the 2023 tournament is the top-ranked University of South Carolina, which beat Stanford for the 2022 title. The other number-one seeds, in order of best season records, are: Indiana University Stanford University University of Utah The number-two seeds are: Louisiana State University University of Maryland University of Connecticut University of Iowa There are many outstanding players in women's college basketball; here's a list of just ten who are considered some of the best today: Aliyah Boston, University of South Carolina Caitlin Clark, University of Iowa Haley Jones, Stanford University Ashley Joens, Iowa State University Elizabeth Kitley, Virginia Tech Cameron Brink, Stanford University Angel Reese, Louisiana State University Olivia Miles, University of Notre Dame Hailey Van Lith, University of Louisville Rori Harmon, University of Texas Origin of the women's NCAA March Madness tournament Although the NCAA Division I basketball tournament has been around since 1939, the women were not included until 1982. Women had a long fight with the NCAA before that, even after Title IX was passed in 1972, to realize this big change. Strangely enough, that first NCAA women’s contest in 1982 coincided with another championship tournament put on by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). (Incidentally, Rutgers beat Texas to win the AIAW championship, and Louisiana Tech beat Cheyney State to win the NCAA tournament.) Why were there two tournaments? Because up until the 1981-1982 school year, the NCAA was not interested in women’s sports championships. Those had been under the purview of the women-led AIAW, which had been governing women’s collegiate sports since 1971. Of the many ways it supported women’s sports, the AIAW played a role in the passage of Title IX in 1972, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs or activities that receive federal funding. However, in 1981, when the all-male-led-NCAA added women’s sports to its championship program for the first time, it created an uneven playing field in the battle with the AIAW for the governance of women’s collegiate sports. That fight lasted for about a year, but ultimately, the power and money of the NCAA won out. The AIAW folded in 1982. Inequities within March Madness Unfortunately, the NCAA hasn’t valued women’s sports as much as men’s sports throughout most of its existence. However, that is beginning to change, and one of the most conspicuous examples came with the 2022 NCAA women’s basketball tournament. An outcry on social media during the 2021 March Madness tournament pointed out the stark inequities between the men’s and women’s practice facilities and amenities. This led the NCAA to hire a law firm to conduct a review of gender equity related to the tournaments in general. The resulting report uncovered many examples of inequities related to spending on marketing and promotion, players’ meals and services, event staffing, and more. The report led the NCAA to try to level the field in 2022. It expanded the number of women’s teams from 64 to 68, the same as the men, and used the “March Madness” phrase for the women’s tournament for the first time. The organization also provided the same gifts to the men’s and women’s teams in 2022, staged similar fan events, and paid the game officials the same. However, there still remained a large gap between the NCAA’s spending on promotion, TV coverage, and more. In a March 11, 2022, Washington Post article, Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, wouldn’t comment on the gap in spending between the men’s and women’s tournaments. However, he did say, “The work is not done. There is more to do, and we look forward to doing more after this year’s championship.”

Article / Updated 05-17-2023

Have you ever looked through the photos you shot during a vacation or important family get-together and wished you had better pictures to frame, share online, or use in a photo book? For example, that really cool picture you took of your husband in front of the Eiffel Tower? Not so cool after all. You can’t really see him; he’s way too small in the frame. And in another shot, he has horns sticking out of his head because of some strange, unidentifiable object in the background. It's frustrating when you end up with less-than-ideal pictures. But you can improve your photo-taking skills by incorporating a few simple techniques. Give the following tips a try. Pay attention to the whole frame As illustrated above (the horns), it’s important to pay attention to the entire frame of your photo when you’re getting ready to click the shutter button. Whether you’re using a smartphone or something fancier, what’s around your main subject and in the background matters. You might have to change your position, your camera angle, or wait a few seconds, but it will be worth the trouble. Fill the frame This tip is related to the first one because it’s also about paying attention to the entire frame of your photo. One of the best pieces of advice for better photos is to get closer to your subject and fill the frame with it, or them. The photo below shows an example of this. The photographer moved up close to the woman and filled the frame with her and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Identify your focal point and compose around it Before you snap a picture, first, identify your focal point, or main subject. It could be a person, a fountain, a tree, a building , or anything you’re interested in. Then, compose your shot with that focal point in mind. Even in scenes where a main subject isn’t obvious, try to identify something. For example, in a busy outdoor market, is there an interesting person or eye-catching tapestry you could use as your focal point? In the photo below, the photographer noticed the wacky shaped, bright-colored peppers and chose them as the focal point. If the photographer had stood way back and shot more of an overview of the scene, with nothing in particular as the main subject, the result would have been a much less interesting picture. In this shot, the photographer also chose a fairly shallow depth of field to blur the background. This further emphasizes the focal point, while also showing the environment. Dummies.com has many articles and books on photography, including lots of books on specific cameras. Use the rule of thirds Often, if we don’t take a moment to consider composition, we end up placing our main subject right in the center of the frame. The result, most of the time , is a boring photo. You can significantly improve your photos by using the rule of thirds when you compose your shot. The rule of thirds is a method of composition. Imagine a grid (see image below) over your viewfinder (on many cameras and smartphones, this is an option you can actually turn on) and place your subject along one of the lines or at a point where the lines intersect. As you can see in the image of the golden retriever below, the dog’s head is near one of these intersecting points, and it results in a beautifully balanced shot. This photo would be far less dramatic if the dog was placed right in the center of the frame. Keep in mind, the rule of thirds is a guideline. There are many examples of beautiful photographs featuring the main subjects in the center of the frame (like the next photo featured in this article). This decision, like so many aspects of photography, is an artistic one. Where is the light coming from? Take note of where the light source is, whether you’re indoors or outdoors. For example, if you take a photo of a person with the sun coming from behind them, it’s likely their face will be darkened and they might appear silhouetted. This is because your camera’s light meter is trying to simultaneously deal with the very bright and very dark areas in the scene. That’s not to say that shooting toward the sun is wrong. Many photographers do this intentionally for artistic effect, which requires a bit of technical know-how and some experimentation. Also, pay attention to whether there are harsh shadows falling across your main subject. Try changing the angle of the shot by moving yourself or the subject, if possible. Meter the light on your main subject Digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras, and others, include different ways to measure light coming into the lens to ensure a good exposure — meaning the picture will not end up too dark or too light. Make sure you are measuring the amount of light on your main subject. Even smartphones allow you to do this by tapping a specific area of the image on the screen. The point on the screen you tap is where the phone’s camera will measure the light. It will then adjust the exposure for that point rather than trying to balance the exposure for the entire scene, which can result in your main subject looking too dark or light. Try playing with this on your phone, and you will soon understand how to make it work for you. Keep your camera level and hands steady This tip may seem obvious, but we all sometimes forget to do these two simple things when we’re shooting photos. You can easily ruin what would have been a great shot by not holding steady and making sure you have your horizon straight. Look for leading lines and patterns In photography, leading lines are shapes in the scene that help lead a viewer’s eyes to your focal point. These could be train tracks, a line of trees or lampposts, a fence, buildings, or even shadows. In the photo below, the planks and rails of the pier lead your eyes out to the clouds and mountains beyond. You can also look for other elements, such as shapes and colors, that make patterns in a scene to add interest to your photo. Frame your subject Many times, if you look carefully, you can find ways to frame your main subject with other elements in the scene. For example, a rowboat just offshore in a lake could be framed by the trees on the shoreline. In the photo below, the photographer saw an opportunity to frame the subject with the arched window. Try a different angle For fun, try framing your subject with a different angle. In the photo below, a different perspective, shooting up toward the statue’s face, and using the architectural elements on the walls to frame the head, creates a much more interesting picture than it would have been just shooting this static subject from farther back and straight on.