Inside the effort to ensure KU women’s basketball hosted its 2023 Postseason WNIT games

LAWRENCE — The run the Kansas women’s basketball team went on to win the 2023 Postseason WNIT this year saw the Jayhawks play six-straight games inside Allen Fieldhouse.

Although Kansas did not reach the NCAA tournament, that still allowed coach Brandon Schneider and company to build momentum ahead of next season. At the moment it appears it’s the extent to which, not if, that fan support carries over into next season. The amount of fans attending each WNIT game rose with each contest, from 2,518 in the round of 64 win against Western Kentucky to 11,701 in the championship game victory against Columbia.

But the fact that the Jayhawks played all six of those WNIT games at home didn’t just come about simply because the program wanted to do so. There was an involved process. And Nicole Corcoran, KU’s senior woman administrator and a deputy athletic director for sports administration and student-athlete well-being, sat down with The Topeka Capital-Journal last week to explain it.

How the process gets started

Before a team can be selected to host, it has to be selected to be in the tournament. So, of course, that matters. But even before a team is selected, Corcoran said, there’s information that’s submitted for each round for what their expenses would be, what the prediction for ticket sales would be and what it would look like for them to host if they want to host.

That’s where Corcoran counted on people in areas like the ticket office and facilities, to gather the information on what it would cost to run an event and the projection of ticket sales.

“You go through that before you have a great understanding of how much, maybe, support you might actually have, or what things might look like, or who you might be playing,” Corcoran said. “So, we did that at the beginning before we were selected.”

At that time, Corcoran and the Jayhawks were still confident they would be selected to be in the NCAA tournament. But just in case they weren’t, she wanted to be prepared. And once they weren’t in the NCAA tournament and were on board with being in the WNIT, the information was submitted for consideration.

“The way the WNIT works, I worked closely with the director of the WNIT, Johnna Pointer,” Corcoran said. “And when we were told we were selected … ‘Hey, your bid, we’re going to play first round with you all. If you want to be considered for the next round, you might want to look at your bid and see if there’s anything you want to do to adjust that.’”

Here’s what was considered as the WNIT progressed

When Kansas looked ahead to a future round — like the potential of playing Missouri in the round of 32, which happened — Corcoran said they looked at what it would cost to take the team on the road. They looked at what it would take to bring the band or spirit squad. They looked at what it would take to bring anyone else involved, considering the WNIT does have some level of reimbursement but that doesn’t cover everything.

That information is analyzed against what it would take to have home-court advantage — which Corcoran said is priceless, in a way. So, a decision is made on if they want to adjust their bid for the next round. There was a round when the Jayhawks did not increase their bid, she said, but that wasn’t the case for all of them.

“It’s possible we’re doing this before we know who our opponent is,” Corcoran said. “So, they might say, ‘Hey, of your two potential opponents, there are some bids that are higher, some ranges that are higher, that you might want to consider increasing your bid.’ So, they could maybe share a range, but they’re not going to say, ‘This school gave X dollars. You have to be Y if you want to get it.’ They didn’t. They don’t do that. It’s not that overt.”

Those conversations were routine, Corcoran noted. But she added that the WNIT didn’t just look at the financial bid, and that Pointer shared that with her early and often. The team’s NET ranking, strength of schedule, momentum and more were considered.

Corcoran found herself writing it all out.

“Here’s who our potential opponents are,” said Corcoran, thinking back. “Here’s our NET. Here’s our RPI, not that they use that as much, but strength of schedule. And our record, our conference, the strength of our conference. And so, gosh, with lots of the people that we ended up playing or potentially playing, we were a lot better in almost all those categories — almost all, not all of course.”

Here’s why Kansas was committed to hosting each game

Seeing the increase in fan support every game, from Corcoran’s perspective, was remarkable. There were times when anyone at the games could have noticed the athletes visibly react to the crowd. And providing opportunities for all of that to happen played into the commitment Kansas had to hold these WNIT games at Allen Fieldhouse.

Corcoran said she and Jayhawks athletic director Travis Goff spoke early on about hosting and the process of potentially resubmitting bids. Corcoran considered the support they could show for the women’s basketball team to be important. And she was happy that she and Goff were on the same page about it all.

“Once we got over that initial disappointment that we didn’t make the tournament,” Corcoran said, “it’s like, ‘OK, well let’s just go in and let’s win this whole freakin’ thing. If we’re going to do it, let’s do it right. If we’re going to do it, let’s host. Let’s have the fans here and fill Allen Fieldhouse.’”

The Great 8 round matchup that would be played against Arkansas and championship game that would be played against Columbia were two that Corcoran mentioned when asked if she was ever worried Kansas wouldn’t get the home game. The latter was nerve-racking, in part, because to that point every game the Jayhawks had played had been at Allen Fieldhouse. Both, of course, worked out for Kansas.

Here’s the hope Kansas has for what the WNIT run leads to

Corcoran said there were people who came to Allen Fieldhouse during the WNIT run who had never bought tickets to a women’s basketball game there before. She’s expressed excitement about what the crowds could look like next season. Her comments followed the same positive outlook Schneider and the players had during the run.

“I love that we get a note from a guy on our website,” Corcoran said, “that says, ‘Hey, I need help. I’m from Ottawa, Kansas. I’m 67 years old. I’m not sure how to order tickets. Are there any specials for me being over 65? Can you help me order tickets to women’s basketball?’ Like that’s just one example of the story.”

Corcoran later added: “I’d love it if we’d look then, next year, look at what our attendance was during regular season this year, and then look at next year — it’s going to be higher. It has to be higher.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: 2023 Postseason WNIT: How Kansas women’s basketball hosted its games