The size of the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship is once again increasing.
The field was bumped from 24 to 27 teams in November of 2022, but still fell shy of the 30 teams that compete on the men’s side.
The idea was “to provide an equitable championship access ratio across both Division I men’s and women’s golf, with 10% of both men’s and women’s teams now advancing from regionals to the finals site.”
While the logic was to make sure an equal percentage of men’s and women’s teams advanced to the finals, the move still didn’t sit right with many advocates for women’s golf, who simply wanted the women to have an equal number of teams competing for the national championship.
It was announced Wednesday that the Division I Competition Oversight Committee approved a measure to increase the field size from 27 to 30 teams, equaling the number of teams the men send to the finals every year.
“There is significant importance in providing equitable participation opportunities for our women student-athletes,” said Bradford Hurlbut, director of athletics at Fairleigh Dickinson and chair of the Division I Women’s Golf Committee. “We are thrilled with the announcement by the Division I Competition Oversight Committee to move to 30 teams and 156 deserving student-athletes for the upcoming 2023 championship finals.”
As Hurlbut mentioned, the number of individuals competing also increased, going from 147 student-athletes to 156.