The NCAA News - News and Features
The NCAA News -- February 15, 1999
Championships group sets selection-principle guidelines
The Division III Championships Committee, which met January 27-29 in Phoenix, developed guidelines to assist Division III sports committees in implementing the new championships selection principles that were approved with the adoption of 1999 Convention Proposal No. 38.
The sports committees have until June 15 to forward specific recommendations to the Championships Committee as to how the new championships selection principles will be implemented on a sport-by-sport basis. These guidelines are intended to assist the committees as they do so and to clarify issues raised by the Division III membership.
The committee also highlighted the conference membership deadline. To receive automatic qualification for the 1999-2000 championships, conferences must have their membership established and defined by April 1, 1999.
Selection principles guidelines
The following are guidelines pertaining to allocation of berths:
Pool A continues to be allocated to champions of conferences that qualify for an automatic bid.
Pool B will be composed of independent institutions and institutions that are members of conferences that do not meet the requirements for automatic qualification.
Pool C will be reserved for institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that are not the conference champion.
Berths from Pool B and Pool C will be selected on a national basis, using regional selection criteria specified in the legislation. There will be no predetermined regional allocations for Pools B and C.
Pools B and C cannot be combined.
There will be no maximum or minimum number of berths from one region.
For the 1999-2000 championships, no conference will receive more than one automatic berth.
The following are guidelines pertaining to selection criteria:
Sports committees will select teams based on conference and regional competition. Committees will review all of the following primary criteria (in priority order): (1) winning percentage, head-to-head results, results against common opponents and; (2) strength of schedule as demonstrated by regional opponents' winning percentage, and; (3) results against teams already in the tournament. (Committees will review all three criteria in the order listed above. A team may have an excellent winning percentage, but the committee must still examine its strength of schedule and results against teams already in the tournament.)
If all three of the primary criteria are equal, the remainder of the institution's schedule (for example, NAIA, Division I and Division II opponents and out-of-region play) may be evaluated.
If a sports committee wants to use a strength-of-schedule index, it must be based on regional opponents' winning percentage and it must be approved by the Division III Championships Committee.
The following are guidelines pertaining to pairings:
Once selected, teams will be grouped in clusters according to natural geographic proximity. Teams will then be paired according to geographic proximity. A team may be moved to numerically balance the bracket, but flights should be kept to a minimum.
Teams may be seeded on a regional basis using the regional selection criteria. However, geographic proximity takes precedence over seeding.
Teams from the same conference do not have to play one another in the first round as long as geographic proximity is maintained.
If all site-selection criteria are equal, the highest seeded team will be selected as the host institution. The criteria for determining sites remains the same.
The Championships Committee also issued guidelines on a variety of related issues:
All members of a conference will be placed in the same region for evaluation purposes, unless the Division III Championships Committee has granted an exception.
The Division III Championships Committee intends to decline requests for waiver of the two-year waiting period for new conferences.
The Division III Championships Committee will waive the February 1, 1998, deadline for single-sport conferences if the conference can demonstrate that it was in existence prior to the deadline and can demonstrate a legitimate history of conference competition. However, the conference must be elected to NCAA Division III membership and must meet all other automatic-qualification requirements.
The Championships Committee will forward preliminary recommendations for bracket expansion to the Division III Management Council and Presidents Council for review at their April meetings. The committee will recommend that the ratio guideline for team sports be revised from 1:8 to 1:7.5. If the recommendation and funding are approved as part of the final budget in August, there will be limited expansion of the brackets in some sports. The recommendation may not be approved, but sports committees should take expansion into account for planning purposes.
The Championships Committee will schedule monthly conference calls beginning in March to assist sports committees with their review process for recommendations, and the Championships Committee will meet with all sport committee chairs and staff liaisons April 26 to discuss the recommendations before the June 15 deadline.
Individual/team sport field sizes
In another action, the committee will forward several recommendations for increased field sizes for individual/team sports to the Management Council for consideration at its April meeting.
The committee recommended that the field size for the newly established Division III Women's Golf Championships be set at 60.
The committee recommended that the field size be increased from 124 to 202 in men's tennis; from 124 to 222 in women's tennis; and from 184 to 215 in men's and women's cross country.
The committee also recommended that the cap on participants in men's and women's swimming and diving be increased by 16 individuals to accommodate relay-only swimmers.
Baseball bat issue
The committee reviewed the recent action taken by the NCAA Executive Committee regarding the bat standard for NCAA championships.
The committee will ask the Division III Management Council to sponsor noncontroversial legislation to provide a waiver to NCAA Bylaw 31.2.1.1 for the 1999 season only.
This waiver would permit those institutions that choose not to participate in the NCAA baseball championship this year (because of the new bat rule) with an opportunity to participate in other postseason play.
Other highlights
Division III Championships Committee
January 27-29/Phoenix
Recommended that three-person officiating crews be established for Division III women's basketball championships beginning 1999-2000.
Recommended increased funding for championships (mementos for student-athletes and other members of the official travel parties) to create a more consistent experience for all student-
athletes at Division III championships finals.
Recommended the revision of the championships travel policy to require teams to use ground transportation if the distance from campus to a major airport is less than 120 miles and to require teams to use ground transportation if the distance from the major airport to the site of the competition is less than 120 miles.
Reviewed and revised its operations plan.
|
