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The NCAA News -- March 1, 1999

Realignment dominates men's soccer meeting

The Division III Men's Soccer Committee met recently to discuss Division III championship selection principles and realign conference members to ensure that conference teams were allocated to the same region as identified by the Division III Championships Committee.

The committee, meeting February 2-5 in Palm Springs, California, made the following recommendations regarding realignment:

  • Realigned York College (Pennsylvania) of the Capital Athletic Conference to the South region.

  • Realigned Mississippi College of the America Southwest Conference to the Central region, and Grinnell College, Illinois College, Knox College and Monmouth College (Illinois) of the Midwest Conference to the Central region. Also, Clarke College of the Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference was relocated to the Central region.

  • Realigned Albertus Magnus College, Roger Williams University and Salve Regina University of the Commonwealth Coast Conference to the New England region. Also, the Little East Athletic Conference consolidated its membership to the New England region with the transfer of Eastern Connecticut State University, Rhode Island College and Western Connecticut State University. Members of the New England Small College Athletic Conference that moved to the New England region included Connecticut College, Trinity College (Connecticut) and Wesleyan University (Connecticut). Also realigned to the New England region were Johnson and Wales University of the Great Northeast and U.S. Coast Guard Academy of the New England Women's and Men's Athletics Conference.

  • Realigned Frostburg State University; Lake Erie College; Pennsylvania State University Erie, the Behrend College; University of Pittsburgh, Bradford; and University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg, of the Allegheny Mountain Athletic Conference to the Mid-Atlantic region.

  • Realigned Hiram College and Wabash College of the North Coast Athletic Conference to the Great Lakes region.

    With the new regional realignment, the committee eliminated the power-rating index as a tool for championship selection.

    In other action, the committee discussed its recommendation for bracket expansion to 44 teams and planned the necessary adjustments to the championship in case the new bracket was to be approved.

    Other highlights

    Division III Men's Soccer Committee
    February 2-5/Palm Springs, California

  • Began a preliminary discussion on the evaluation of teams throughout the regular season and defining the evaluating role of the regional advisory committees.

  • Recommended to the Division III Championships Committee that all institutions be required to submit score-reporting forms to the regional advisory committees. The committee also recommended that the penalties for not submitting the forms be a warning letter for the first offense and the possibility of a fine for subsequent offenses to ensure that all scores are reported.

  • Recommended that it be allowed to continue using the current computer program that calculates opponents' winning percentage and the opponents' opponents' winning percentage to compare strength of schedule.

  • Voted to not use predetermined regional allocations in the championship selection process. The committee decided to pair teams geographically in the first round of tournament competition. This changes the previous policy of having first-round games preassigned to specific regions.