National Collegiate Athletic Association

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The NCAA News -- March 1, 1999

Women's soccer panel tabs 29 leagues for AQ

Automatic qualification and selection criteria were among items discussed during the Division III Women's Soccer Committee's annual meeting February 2-5 in Palm Springs, California.

The committee reviewed the conference automatic-qualification applications and determined the following conferences to receive automatic bids into the 1999 championship: Capital, Centennial, Commonwealth Coast, Dixie, Great Northeast, Heartland, Iowa, Lake Michigan, Little East, Massachusetts State, Michigan Intercollegiate, Middle Atlantic, Midwest, Minnesota Intercollegiate, New England Small College Athletic, New England Women's and Men's Athletic, New Jersey, North Coast, Ohio Athletic, Old Dominion, Pennsylvania Athletic, St. Louis Intercollegiate, Southern Collegiate, Southern California Intercollegiate, State University of New York Athletic, Upstate Collegiate and Wisconsin Intercollegiate Conferences; the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin; and the University Athletic Association.

The committee also verified conference regional alignments to ensure that the alignment complied with the Division III Championship Committee's selection principle guidelines.

In addition, the committee eliminated the Metro region, reducing the number of regions from eight to seven. The committee approved that there would not be any predetermined bid allocations designated per region. The committee also discontinued its predetermined regional pairings rotation and determined that future pairings would be coordinated through the discretion of the committee and will be reviewed annually.

In other actions, the committee agreed with the championships committee's published selection criteria and is looking to add opponents' opponents' winning percentage into the strength-of-schedule index. The committee is researching a new computer program to calculate the strength of schedules.

Other highlights

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

  • Revised the score-reporting form and emphasized that regional advisory committees need to have timely and complete reporting due to the new selection criteria. The committee emphasized the need for institutions to record scores on the Web site and the need for schools to use e-mail as the preferred method in score reporting.

  • Heard from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) regarding automatic-qualification procedures, selection guidelines and the impact on high-quality teams. The NSCAA also asked about potential increases in squad size, and asked the committee to be sensitive to the college affiliations of officials when assigning officials to work playoff games.

  • Heard from the National Inter-collegiate Soccer Officials Association regarding the need to identify the best officials that would be available to work all rounds of the championship. The committee also discussed assignment procedures for competition and the role of the fourth official.

  • Discussed date differences between the Division III men's and women's soccer championships. The women's committee decided to maintain the current schedule for the finals, with games being held on the Saturday and Sunday before Thanks-giving.

  • Discussed facility concerns at playoff sites along with the importance of having quality hotels booked well in advance of games. The committee stressed the importance of having the scorekeeping area at all sites covered during competition.