A new policy allowing more freedom for Division II conferences to play their postseason basketball championship games on the same day that NCAA tournament selections are made has forced both the Division II Men's and Women's Basketball Committees, as well as Division II conferences, to review their options.

In the past, Division II conferences have been encouraged to complete tournament play in all sports the day before tournament berths are decided. Although conferences have never been prevented from completing the championship game on selection day, it has been common practice to finish games a day in advance to ensure that non-automatic qualifiers receive full consideration for at-large berths.

That schedule also allowed for a selection show in men's and women's basketball that could be aired via satellite late Sunday afternoon.

But Division II conference commissioners, who suggested a change to the Division II Championships Committee in January, believe that completing tournament play on Sunday provides a better environment for their postseason.

"Our schools have always wanted a Sunday option for their conference tournament," said Don Landry, commissioner of the Sunshine State Conference and chair of the Division II Men's Basketball Committee.

Landry, who also is past-president of the Division II Commissioners Association, said this issue has been on the table for a number of years.

"We finally sent it to the Championships Committee last year. A strong majority wanted the Sunday option," he said.

At its February meeting, the Championships Committee asked each Division II sports committee for feedback about how this would affect the selection process. The men's and women's basketball committees, among others, indicated the change would cause them to alter their current selection process.

The Championships Committee went ahead with the action, directing committees to accommodate conference championship play on selection day by the 2001-02 academic year.

Although this is not just an issue for basketball, basketball is the only Division II sport in which each conference has an automatic qualifier.

Since Division II Bylaw 31.3.4.1-a indicates that a conference champion must be determined not later than the date on which participants are selected for the NCAA championship, it will be a change in philosophy for the committees rather than a change in the actual bylaw.

Conference perspective

Sunday competition, as long as it does not conflict with institutions that have written policies against it for religious reasons, would benefit leagues like the Gulf South Conference.

The conference has 18 member institutions and spans six states and two time zones. The Gulf South is the largest geographic conference at any level and also the largest playing conference in terms of membership size.

"Because we are such a geographic giant, travel is costly and involves missed class time," said Gulf South Commissioner Nathan Salant. "We try to play as much as possible on weekends to cut down on missed class time and save money at hotels because weekend rates are almost always cheaper than weekday rates."

The Gulf South plays a four-day conference tournament in basketball. With the current no-selection-day-play, the opening-round games begin Wednesday, followed by men's and women's quarterfinals on Thursday. The four semifinal games would be played Friday and the two champions would be determined on Saturday.

"If we move a day later, more teams can play on the weekend," Salant said. "We also have to be sensitive to players' families. If they are taking off work to travel to a Wednesday game and their kids advance, that is four days off from work depending upon the site and proximity to their homes."

Even for conferences without distance issues, the format is a concern.

"We only have eight schools, and we don't really have a distance issue," Landry said. "All eight schools, both men's and women's teams, come to the tournament. If you are going to finish the tournament on Saturday, it means that you have to play all day Thursday and have the semifinals on Friday. There is a lot of missed class time involved."

Landry said while missed class time is an issue, so is the quality of the tournament.

"Last year, we ended up having the women's championship game at 3:30 p.m. on a Tuesday," Landry said. "We didn't have a good crowd, and we didn't have a championship atmosphere that we could have on a Saturday or Sunday. Yes, we do better at the gate, also. But improving the championship atmosphere for as many teams as possible is what is important."

Salant said television coverage for Division II conference championship games is another positive for Sunday play.

"If we can go live on Sunday with a 1 p.m. start, we can reach two million households," Salant said. "It is much easier to get a college basketball game on the air live on Sunday than on Saturday when there are a ton of other college basketball options."

Committees must adapt

Allowing conferences to determine their automatic qualifier on selection day will mean a change in the selection process for the men's and women's basketball committees, too.

"I think our first reaction as a committee was to figure out how to make this work," said Judy Southard, chair of the Division II Women's Basketball Committee and director of athletics at Texas Woman's University. "If this is what is best for our basketball constituency, we have to try to accommodate."

Selection-day procedures for each committee typically begin late Saturday night when regional advisory committees meet via conference call to complete their rankings. The national committee usually begins its work around 9 a.m. on the day of selections. The committee proceeds region by region, seeding teams and determining host institutions.

"What happens if a school in Alaska is hosting a conference championship on Sunday afternoon?" Southard asked. "With the time frame being so different, you have to look at how it strings the other participants and the committee along. Given some scenarios with a men's and women's tournament championship on the same day, it could end up being 6:30 or 7 p.m. Eastern time before they even start the games."

So far, neither the Pacific West nor the California Collegiate Athletic Association -- Division II conferences in the Pacific time zone -- play conference tournaments.

But determining the automatic qualifiers includes more than just the champion -- it also impacts whether other conference teams make the tournament bracket as at-large selections.

"This really should not be a factor if the committee does its work after Saturday's semifinals and finals (for those conferences still finishing on Saturday)," Salant said.

Other factors

Besides the time frame for the committee's deliberations, selection-day play likely means that teams will be notified of selection later. The selection show, which will be an Internet broadcast this year instead of a satellite show, would have to be delayed to a time later in the evening on selection day.

"We don't see the perceived advantage of the televised selection show," Salant said. "Too many people can't get the show to enjoy the benefits of it. If we have the option to put it on ESPN, that would be a different story. I'm not sure how you balance that momentary exhilaration for those teams who qualify for the tournament against the quality of the conference tournaments, the accessibility of the conference games to fans and the missed class time for the student-athletes."

Later notification also might impact travel plans for the teams.

"We want as smooth a transition as possible into the regionals," Southard said. "In some cases, these teams have to travel Tuesday to the regional site. They practice Wednesday and start playing Thursday. It's tight."

Regional hosts may be notified later too.

"Now, the No. 1 seed gets to host if they meet the minimum requirements for hosting," Landry said. "If they meet the minimum requirements and are in the top few teams in the region, they have already started working on the arrangements. They aren't waiting until they are notified. They couldn't get everything done otherwise. Like with the tournament manuals, they have it ready to fill in the blanks."

The women's committee is looking at alternative options, too, including a change in the tournament format. One option would be to eliminate the option of Thursday-Friday-Saturday regional tournaments. Another format would move the off-week, currently between the regional tournaments and the Elite Eight, to between the conference tournaments and the start of regionals.

"This is something I've advocated for years," Salant said. "It also gets the student-athletes back in the classroom for a week between the regionals and Elite Eight. Right now, a team that plays a conference tournament and then a regional tournament misses the same Wednesday-Friday classes twice a week, comes back for a week, and then misses another week of the same classes. This is academically unsound."

To accommodate conferences such as the Gulf South this year, the men's committee is considering moving the time of the Internet bracket announcement until 9 p.m.

On the women's side, format changes might be on the way as well.

"The Women's Basketball Coaches Association has suggested that the bracket be expanded to 64 and each regional be played with the Elite Eight format with a day of padding before the championship game," Southard said. "Then you have to look at playing a Friday-Saturday-Monday schedule. So, we have a lot to examine."

It figures to be a balancing act.