Division II

The Division II Women's Softball Committee spent much of its annual meeting adjusting the championship bracket for a recommendation to the Division II Championships Committee.

The current bracket features two semifinal games on Sunday with the championship game played on Monday followed by the "if necessary" game. In the proposed bracket, the first championship game would be held on Sunday evening after the completion of the two semifinal games. The "if necessary" game would remain on Monday.

The committee also voted to divide the existing championship selection criteria into primary factors and secondary factors.

Primary factors will include in-region won-lost record; record versus top five ranked in-region; results against common opponents in-region; significant wins/losses in-region; and head-to-head competition in-region.

Secondary factors will be out-of-region Division II won-lost record; out-of-division won-lost record; record against ranked teams in other regions; power rating; end-of-season performance; and eligibility and availability of student-athletes. The committee intends for the reorganization to help make the selection criteria more understandable to the membership.

In another action, the committee will recommend to the Division II Championships Committee a revised regional inclement-weather advancement policy. The new policy has the highest designated seed advancing to the final series if no games have been played. After one game, the highest seed would still advance. After two games have been played, the highest undefeated seed would advance. The same would apply to the completion of three games.

After the end of the fourth game, the winner of game four would advance. The winner of game four also would advance after the conclusion of game five. If six games are played, the winner of game six would advance unless there is a tie. If a tie exists, head-to-head competition would be examined. If the tie still remains, run differential (runs scored minus runs allowed, with a limit of eight runs maximum per game) between the teams will be utilized to determine which team advances to the final series.

The committee also is recommending to the Championships Committee that regional competition be permitted to extend into Monday evening preceding the final series in the event of inclement weather forcing the rescheduling of games.

In other actions, the committee:

Division III

The Division III Women's Softball Committee discussed the regional schedule of competition for the 1999 championship and will recommend to the Division III Championships Committee that the five-team regionals be reduced from four days to three days of competition.

The new regional schedule calls for four games to be conducted on the first day of competition. Three teams would advance into the second day of play when three games will take place. The final day of regional play would include game eight and a ninth game, if necessary, to complete a double-elimination of one of the two remaining teams.

The committee cited concerns regarding missed class time for the student-athletes at the conclusion of the semester as a primary reason for recommending the change.

The committee also agreed to recommend that 12 conferences be awarded automatic qualification into the 1999 championship. Those conferences are the Centennial, Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic, Massachusetts State College Athletic, Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic, New England Women's Eight, New Jersey Athletic, Ohio Athletic, Old Dominion Athletic, State University of New York Athletic and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic conferences; the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association; and the Collegiate Conference of Wisconsin.

In determining the 12 conferences, the committee evaluated 17 conferences with the same criteria used for determining the nine conferences that gained automatic qualification to the 1998 championship.

In other actions, the committee voted to request that the Division III Championships Committee approve the flight expenses of three umpires to work the championship instead of the two presently budgeted. The committee will forward this request for consideration in January.

The committee also agreed to eliminate the existing requirement that all institutions must fax score-reporting forms to all members of the national committee. The new policy requires that all institutions are responsible for faxing the score-reporting forms only to their specific regional advisory committee members on designated dates.