National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

August 3, 1998

Division II -- II tennis group focuses on championships items

The Division II Men's and Women's Tennis Committee recommended several proposals to the Division II Championships Committee at its annual meeting July 6-9 in Indianapolis.

The committee asked that the championships committee grant a waiver from the new policy of requiring teams to have at least a .500 record in Division II play to be considered for selection to the championships. The tennis committee believes it would be difficult to fill the field in the West region due to the small number of teams competing in Division II men's and women's tennis in that region.

The committee also recommended a change in seeding policies. The present system locks the lowest-seeded teams into playing the top-seeded teams in the bracket. The committee believes that without interregional play, it is difficult to distinguish the better teams among the 9-16 seeds. The committee proposed that for future championships, teams 9-16 would be drawn to play any one of the top eight seeds. This would pair the number one seed with any team seeded as low as nine and as high as 16.

The committee also received a clarification from the championships committee regarding squad size. A proposal to increase squad size from eight to nine was approved by the championships committee, but there was confusion regarding whether or not a the ninth member of the squad could be a coach. The championships committee clarified that the additional member of the squad must be a student-athlete.

The tennis committee also requested a change in the date formula of the Division II Men's and Women's Tennis Championships due to the championships committee's retention of the Sunday competition rule. The committee has proposed that the dates of the tennis championships be changed from Friday, May 14, through Monday, May 17, to Thursday, May 13, through Sunday, May 16. This would minimize the impact on schools that have policies regarding competition on Sunday. The selection would take place on Monday, May 3. The tennis committee will survey the member conferences to see if the selection could be conducted on Wednesday, April 28.

The championships committee tabled the proposal for consideration on a future telephone conference.

Other highlights

Division II Men's and Women's Tennis Committee
July 6-9/Indianapolis

  • Discussed regional allocations and determined to make no changes for the 1999 championships. The committee will review the issue during the 1999 annual meeting for possible changes that would be implemented for the 2000 championships.

  • Retained the current scoring format of playing doubles matches first, followed by singles, with each doubles match contested as a single point. The committee reviewed the Division I men's concept of a single point earned for all three doubles matches played, but made no changes for the 1999 championships.

  • Discussed the no-let rule implemented for Division I men in the 1997-98 season but agreed to make no changes at this time.

  • Appointed John Hansen of Valdosta State University as chair of the men's subcommittee and Joe Jones of Cameron University as chair of the women's subcommittee.