The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- August 16, 1999

Tennis committee looks to unify championships policies

The Division III Men's and Women's Tennis Committee discussed the format for the expanded bracket that will increase the men's championships field from 124 participants to 202 and the women's championships field from 124 to 222.

The women's championships field will be composed of 26 eight-player teams. The women's subcommittee, which met as part of the committee's annual meeting July 6-9, determined that the regional allotments for the first and second rounds will have eight teams in both the East and Midwest regions and five teams each in the South and West regions.

The subcommittee also determined that in the South and West regions, the No. 1 seeded team will receive a bye. The No. 4 team will play the No. 5 team to earn the right to play the No. 1 seed. Seeds two and three will play each other.

The men's subcommittee structured its bracket to include a 27 seven-player teams. Regional allotments for the first and second rounds include eight teams in the East, seven in the Midwest and six in both the South and West.

The committee also confirmed dates for the 2000 championships, with first and second rounds conducted at regional sites Saturday, May 13, and Sunday, May 14. The committee also noted that if a single institution hosts both the men's and women's championships, the host may recommend, subject to the approval of the committee, staggered play on Friday/Saturday and Saturday/Sunday. The committee decided that if approved, the women will play Friday/Saturday in even years with the men playing Friday/Saturday in odd years.

The individual and team championships will be held May 19-24. The team championships will be held Friday, May 19, through Sunday, May 21. The individual championships will be conducted Monday, May 22, through Wednesday, May 24.

Realignment issues

To meet a Division III Championships Committee mandate that all conference members be aligned within the same region with the exception of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and the University Athletic Association, the women's subcommittee moved Allegheny College from the East region to the Midwest. Mary Washington College moved to the East from the South, and both Washington and Jefferson College and Waynesburg College relocated from the East to the South.

The men's subcommittee also moved Allegheny from the East to the Midwest; York College (Pennsylvania) from the East to the South; and Bethany College (West Virginia), Johns Hopkins University, Washington College (Maryland) and Western Maryland College from the South to the East.

In addition, the committee discussed a new regional realignment that would be identical for the men's and women's championships. This alignment, recommended for the 2000-01 season, would rename the regions as follows: Northeast, Atlantic-South, Central and West. All Pennsylvania schools would move to the Atlantic-South except Allegheny, which would go to the Central due to conference affiliation. Two New Jersey schools, Drew University and Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, would move to the Atlantic-South because of conference affiliation.

The proposal also would move 12 Texas and two Arkansas schools to the West.

Before moving forward on the recommendation, the committee is seeking input from coaches of member institutions.

Interested women's coaches should contact Patricia Epps of Franklin & Marshall College and interested men's coaches should contact Chuck Larson of Ripon College.

In another action, the committee will recommend to the Championships Committee that both the men's and women's championships have identical selection criteria.

The committee believes this is necessary because the men's and women's championships have similar formats.

The committee recognized that establishing a single set of procedures would simplify the championships process for coaches and administrators, specifically those who coach or work with both men's and women's teams.

Proposed realignmentThe Division III Men's and Women's Tennis Committee is considering a new regional realignment that would be identical for the men's and women's championships in 2001. The regional breakdown would be composed as follows:

Northeast (90 men's teams; 104 women's teams) -- Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Atlantic-South (79 men's teams; 97 women's teams) -- Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Central (105 men's teams; 113 women's teams) -- Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

West (38 men's teams; 39 women's teams) -- Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.