The Division II Women's Basketball Committee has selected Rochester, Minnesota, to host the 2001 and 2002 Division II Women's Basketball Elite Eight Championships.

The committee selected the site at its annual meeting in Indianapolis June 6-9.

If the site recommendation is approved by the Division II Championships Committee, the next two championships will be played at the Mayo Civic Center's Taylor Arena. The women's basketball committee will solicit bids for the site of the 2003 and 2004 championships this fall.

Other business

In other business, the committee took action in an effort to clarify the intent of Division II legislation about exhibition games. The men's and women's basketball committees forwarded a joint recommendation to the Division II Championships Committee to require that contests against Division I or III opponents be played between November 1 and the first regular-season playing date if they are to be counted as exhibition games. The proposed change would eliminate a team's ability to play a Division I or III opponent as an exhibition game after regular season play has commenced.

The committee also recommended to the Division II Championships Committee that conference championship games still be required to conclude the Saturday before the Sunday of NCAA championship selections. The committee wanted to maintain the selection show and did not want to compromise travel plans for regional competition. The rationale was supported by a survey of coaches conducted by the committee earlier this year.

Another recommendation, also supported by a survey of coaches, was forwarded to the Championships Committee to expand regional competition to four days to allow for a day off between semifinal games and the regional championship. The coaches' survey overwhelmingly favored a format that would conduct play Thursday, Friday and Sunday (or Friday, Saturday and Monday, if an institution has a policy on file with the national office against competition on Sunday).

The committee reviewed the policy that each team is required to play a minimum of 22 Division II games. The policy was confirmed to clarify that 22 games is the minimum regardless of whether a team wins its conference championship.

For 2000-01, the committee will rank the top eight teams from each region rather than 10 as in past years. Also, the committee will delay its first published poll until January 3, 2001. The committee did not think enough games are played before the semester break to merit continuing a poll in December.

The committee also recommended altering its strength- of-schedule formula to include a point for teams defeating a Division I team or a winning Division II team on the road.

Officials

Officials for regional competition will be selected using a process similar to men's basketball. Conferences will be asked to provide the names of its two or three officials (based on the number of conferences in the region). The conference will be responsible for ensuring the availability of the officials prior to submission. In the past, the conference submitted names, and the national committee selected officials from the multiple submissions. Beginning in 2001, the conference suggestions would be automatically selected to work regional games.

Beginning in 2002, a conference that does not use three-person crews for all conference games will not have officials selected for the championship. The committee wanted to guarantee that officials have experience within the system before being advanced to regional and championship play without the proper mechanics.

Judy Southard, athletics director at Texas Woman's University, will be recommended to become chair of the Division II Women's Basketball Committee for 2000-01.