The NCAA News - News and Features

July 7, 1997

III softball tourney growth prompts five-team brackets

The NCAA Division III Women's Softball Committee has recommended that the Division III tournament's traditional four-team regional brackets be expanded to five teams, in response to the NCAA Division III Championships Committee's proposal that the tournament field be expanded from 24 teams to 40.

The committee met June 21-24 in Kansas City, Missouri.

In light of the proposal and the resulting extra games, the committee also recommended that umpires fees be increased to a flat sum of $525 for the regionals and $825 for the finals.

The committee also recommended that nine of the 18 conferences that requested automatic qualification for the 1998 tournament be approved. Traditionally, only three to four conferences have been granted automatic qualification, but a relaxing of criteria resulted in the increase of applications.

Conferences that received automatic qualification last season and were recommended again for 1998 are the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic, Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic, New Jersey Athletic and State University of New York Athletics Conferences.

Also recommended for 1998 are the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin; the Wisconsin Women's Intercollegiate Athletic, Massachusetts State Athletic and Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conferences; and New England Women's Eight.

In another action, the committee recommended that the proposed expanded regions be approved with the following adjustments in alignment, in response to a survey of coaches: the Great Northeast Conference would move to the Northeast region from the New England region, as would three Vermont schools -- Castleton State College, Johnson State College and Southern Vermont College. Also, Colorado College and Trinity University (Texas) would move from the Midwest region to the West region.

The committee also noted that Division III regional advisory committees will be named by September 30 and that the 1998 finals will be May 14-17 at the James I. Moyer Sports Complex in Salem, Virginia. The committee set dates of May 13-17 for the 1999 finals; the site is still to be determined.