The NCAA News - News and Features

February 23, 1998

III championships panel revises automatic qualification

In an effort to provide access to championship opportunities for conference champions in all team sports as well as equitable access for independent institutions, the Division III Championships Committee revised conference automatic-qualification requirements during its February 4-5 meeting in Amelia Island, Florida.

As a result, conferences will be required to have at least eight (rather than seven) championship-eligible NCAA members that sponsor varsity competition in the sport in which automatic qualification is sought.

Also, at least eight conference members that are eligible for an NCAA championship must participate in the process that determines the automatic qualifier.

In addition, at least 50 percent of a conference's members must sponsor a minimum of three men's and three women's team sports. However, single-sport conferences in existence before February 1, 1998, do not have to meet minimum sports-sponsorship requirements.

The committee also determined that all members of the conference must play a minimum of 40 percent of their maximum contest/dates against conference competition.

The championships committee also revised pools that are identified in team selection for championships.

Teams will be selected from three pools. Pool A will consist of champions from automatic-qualifying conferences. Pool B will consist of independent institutions and institutions from nonautomatic-qualifying conferences. Pool C will consist of institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that are not conference champions.

From Pool A, the number of institutions selected will equal the number of conferences that meet the automatic-qualification requirements.

From Pool B, the number of institutions selected will equal the number of independent institutions plus the number of institutions from conferences that do not meet the automatic-qualification requirements, divided by the participation ratio.

For example, a sport may have 64 institutions that are in conferences that do not receive automatic qualification and eight independents, for a total of 72. The ratio is 1 to 8. As a result, there would be nine berths in Pool B (72 divided by 8).

From Pool C, the number of institutions selected will equal the bracket size minus the number of Pool A and Pool B berths.

Implementation of the revisions is scheduled to begin in September 1999.

The committee noted that implementing these revisions may increase transportation costs because some teams may be placed in an adjacent region in order to balance the bracket numerically.

The committee also requested that the sports committees review the revised principles and regional alignments and provide feedback to the championships committee prior to a meeting in June between the committee and chairs of team sports committees.

Football championship

In another action, the committee reviewed the discussion that took place at the 1998 NCAA Convention regarding options to expand the football championship.

The championships committee agreed to ask the Division III Football Committee to review the options presented during the Convention.

In light of interest in a 24-team tournament, the football committee will be asked to review ways the championship may be expanded without extending the season past the current championship ending date.

The championships committee also agreed to ask the Division III Management Council to discuss the football championship at its April meeting.