The NCAA News - News and Features

June 1, 1998

Division III considers selection principles

The Division III Championships Committee has provided additional information to the membership to further clarify the impact of two of the three major changes in championships-selection principles that it had proposed earlier.

The Division III Management Council and Presidents Council requested the clarification after reviewing a revised draft of the committee's proposals at their recent meetings.

Why any changes?

The changes are based on a greater emphasis on in-season conference and regional competition, consistent with the Division III Philosophy Statement. Those principles emerged as a result of Division III's recent restructuring process. The following Guiding Principles (of the Division III National Selection Principles) resulted from that process.

1. Provide automatic qualification for conference champions that meet all requirements.

2. Provide proportional berths for independents and nonautomatic-qualifying institutions (members of conferences that do not receive automatic qualification).

3. Provide for selection on an at-large basis for institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that are not conference champions.

4. All selections will be determined primarily on region and conference regular-season competition and record.

5. All members of a conference will be placed in the same region for selection purposes.

Conference membership

The first major change proposed by the committee was a recommended increase (from seven to eight) in the minimum number of conference members required for conference automatic qualification.

The proposed change states: "Conferences must have at least eight NCAA members that sponsor the sport on a varsity intercollegiate basis, in the division in which automatic qualification is sought and that are eligible for the NCAA championship, and have had at least eight members that are eligible for the NCAA championship participate in the process that determines the automatic qualifier. Conferences with 16 or more members will receive an additional automatic berth."

(The change aligns more closely with the 1:8 championships access ratio for all team sports that was first implemented during 1997-98.)

The Management Council and Presidents Council requested data regarding the impact of changes to the various selection pools (Pools A, B and C) based on the recommended increase from seven to eight. (See Chart 1.)

Pool A is the number of conferences that meet the automatic-qualification requirements.

Pool B is the number of independent institutions, plus the number of institutions from conferences that do not meet the automatic-qualification requirements, divided by the bracket access ratio. For example, if a sport has 64 institutions that are in conferences that do not receive automatic qualification and eight independent institutions (for a total of 72), the ratio is 1:8. As a result, there would be nine berths in Pool B (72 divided by 8).

Pool C is the bracket size minus the number of Pool A and Pool B berths, and it includes all institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that were not conference champions. The pool would be selected nationally based on a team's win-loss record within its conference and region. For example, if team X is 22-5 overall with an 18-3 regional record, and team Y is 20-7 overall and has a 20-1 regional record, team Y would be selected because it has a better win-loss record within the region.

Forty percent requirement

The next major change proposed by the committee was one of the requirements for conference automatic qualification: "All members of the conference must play a minimum of 40 percent of their published schedule against conference competition."

The Management Council and Presidents Council requested information regarding the impact of the proposed 40 percent conference scheduling requirement on all team sports. (See Chart 2.)

Sponsorship requirement

The third, and least controversial, of the Championships Committee's major proposed changes is a sports-sponsorship requirement, which is yet another qualifier for conference automatic qualification: "At least 50 percent of a conference's members must sponsor a minimum of three men's and three women's team sports. Single-sport conferences in existence before February 1, 1998, do not have to meet minimum sports-sponsorship requirements."

The councils did not request additional information regarding that proposed change.

Process and time line

The Championships Committee is requesting feedback regarding these proposals before its July 7-9 meeting. A discussion session planned on the issue also is planned for the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) convention June 14-17 in Marco Island, Florida.

Members are encouraged to discuss the proposed changes and submit feedback to Donna J. Noonan, NCAA director of championships and staff liaison to the Championships Committee, at the national office (e-mail: dnoonan@ncaa.org).

The Championships Committee will finalize its recommendations during its July meeting.

The committee also will determine which portions of Bylaw 31 should be revised to make it consistent with the committee's recommendations. Those recommendations will be forwarded to the Presidents Council for sponsorship as proposed legislation at the 1999 NCAA Convention.

While NCAA legislation permits executive regulations like Bylaw 31 to be adopted by the Presidents Council or Management Council -- independent of a membership vote -- the Presidents Council and Management Council have determined that this significant issue warrants a vote by the membership at the 1999 Convention.

The revised selection principles, if adopted, then would be implemented in September 1999.

Estimated championship berths

Sport (bracket size) -- POOL A* -- POOL B** -- POOL C***

Min. conference sports sponsorship to receive automatic bid in Pool A

-- 6 -- 7 -- 8 -- 6 -- 7 -- 8 -- 6 -- 7 -- 8

Baseball (40) -- 29 -- 28 -- 20 -- 5 -- 7 -- 14 -- 6 -- 5 -- 6

Men's Basketball (48) -- 33 -- 30 -- 25 -- 5 -- 8 -- 13 -- 10 -- 10 -- 10

Women's Basketball (48) -- 34 -- 31 -- 26 -- 2 -- 4 -- 9 -- 12 -- 13 -- 13

Field Hockey (16) -- 11 -- 9 -- 7 -- 2 -- 4 -- 6 -- 3 -- 3 -- 3

Football (24) -- 21 -- 15 -- 12 -- 3 -- 8 -- 11 -- 0 -- 1 -- 1

(16) -- 21 -- 15 -- 12 -- 0 -- 1 -- 4 -- 0 -- 0 -- 0

Ice Hockey (8) -- 5 -- 5 -- 5 -- 0 -- 0 -- 0 -- 3 -- 3 -- 3

Men's Lacrosse (12) -- 9 -- 6 -- 2 -- 3 -- 6 -- 6 -- 0 -- 0 -- 4

Women's Lacrosse (12) -- 11 -- 9 -- 6 -- 0 -- 1 -- 2 -- 1 -- 2 -- 4

Men's Soccer (40) -- 30 -- 29 -- 23 -- 6 -- 7 -- 14 -- 4 -- 4 -- 3

Women's Soccer (40) -- 31 -- 28 -- 22 -- 0 -- 3 -- 15 -- 9 -- 9 -- 3

Softball (40) -- 28 -- 24 -- 22 -- 4 -- 7 -- 10 -- 8 -- 9 -- 8

Women's Volleyball (48) -- 35 -- 31 -- 26 -- 1 -- 3 -- 11 -- 12 -- 14 -- 11

*Pool A: The number of conferences that meet the automatic-qualification requirements.

**Pool B: The number of independent institutions, plus the number of institutions from conferences that do not meet the automatic-qualification requirements, divided by the bracket access ratio.

***Pool C: The bracket size minus the number of Pool A and B berths. This would be a national selection based on a team's win-loss record within its region and conference.

For example, a bracket of 48 - (Pool A + Pool B) = Pool C.

Note: The football information is provided for both a 16-team and 24-team bracket.

Proposed 40 percent conference scheduling requirement

Sport -- Maximum Dates Allowed -- 40 Percent of Maximum Dates

Baseball -- 36 -- 14

Men's Basketball -- 25 -- 10

Women's Basketball -- 25 -- 10

Field Hockey -- 20 -- 8

Football -- 10 -- 4

Ice Hockey -- 25 -- 10

Men's Lacrosse -- 17 -- 6

Women's Lacrosse -- 17 -- 6

Men's Soccer -- 20 -- 8

Women's Soccer -- 20 -- 8

Softball -- 36 -- 14

Women's Volleyball -- 22 -- 10