The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- March 15, 1999

Bracket expansion prompts football committee to revise selection criteria

Fifteen conferences tabbed for automatic qualifications

The process for determining how teams will be selected for the expanded 1999 championship dominated discussion during a recent meeting of the NCAA Division III Football Committee.

This year's championship features a 24-team bracket, broken into four groups of six teams each, with the top two seeds in each group receiving first-round byes. It is the first bracket increase since the field expanded from eight to 16 teams in 1985.

The committee, which met February 9-12 in Indianapolis, reviewed the current regional alignments and automatic-qualification applications. It also identified the number of independent institutions and the number of schools that are members of conferences that were not granted automatic qualification.

For 1999, there will be 207 institutions participating in the Division III championship selection process. Of that total, 134 are members of the following 15 conferences that will receive an automatic berth: Centennial, Freedom Football, Heartland Collegiate Athletic, Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic, Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic, Middle Atlantic States, Midwest, Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic, New England Football, North Coast Athletic, Ohio Athletic, Old Dominion Athletic, Southern Collegiate Athletic and Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conferences; and the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.

There will be one additional berth reserved for an institution from an automatic-qualifying conference that is not its conference champion. The remaining eight playoff teams will be independent institutions or members of conferences without an automatic berth.

The nine non-automatic berths will be selected on a national basis, using regional selection criteria, and have no predetermined regional allocations. There will be no maximum or minimum number of berths from one region.

Regional selection criteria, listed in priority order, include: (1) Winning percentage, head-to-head results, results against common opponents; (2) strength of schedule, as demonstrated by regional opponents' winning percentage; and (3) results against teams already in the tournament.

The committee will analyze strength of schedule further by using the winning percentage of the regional opponents' opponents.

If all the primary criteria are equal, the remainder of an institution's schedule (for example, games against NAIA and Divisions I and II opponents, and out-of-region play) may be evaluated.

In a related matter, the committee is requesting that the selection meeting for the championship be held in person, rather than via conference call.

In other actions, the committee: