The Division III Men's Basketball Committee discussed the heavy emphasis on the results of in-region games in determining championship participants in Pools B and C under current criteria during its annual meeting July 13-16 in Indianapolis.

The specific criterion states that "berths from Pools B and C will be selected on a national basis using regional selection criteria." Last year, Pool A consisted of 33 conference champions. Nine teams were from Pool B; six were from Pool C.

The committee is concerned with the effect that such emphasis has on regular-season scheduling. Particularly in the East, where as many as three regions can cross over an area within a 50-mile radius, teams have had difficulty continuing traditional rivalries because the opponents, while geographically close, may be out of region. The in-region criteria also have caused teams located on the edge of regions to travel a relatively long distance for regional games rather than playing nonregion teams that are geographically close.

Noting that the Division III Management Council supported the Division III Presidents Council request that current Division III championships criteria stay in place for one more year before being reassessed, the committee formulated a recommendation to the Division III Championships Committee for this season that would expand the definition of an institution's region. Under the recommendation, "in region" would include both teams in that school's geographic region and those Division III schools within a 200-mile radius of the school. Committee Chair Rob Coleman, director of athletics at City College of New York, will meet with the Championships Committee later this year to present a preliminary report on the recommendation.

The committee's other main point of discussion was building the championship bracket after teams are selected. The committee proposed no changes but noted that trying to maintain the integrity of the bracket according to regional seed while also complying with geographical proximity requirements is the most difficult part of its charge, as opposed to the actual selection of teams.

With regard to selection of officials, the committee will attempt to increase the level of communication between the official assignors in each conference and the regional chair to avoid having officials work in tournament games in which they are too familiar with the teams. The committee will request that regional assignors submit their list of recommended officials and their schedules to the respective regional chair at least 48 hours before tournament competition. The committee did not specify a minimum number of a school's contests that an official could work before being precluded because it did not want to automatically eliminate good officials from working games, particularly in geographical areas with a small number of Division III schools. Such a decision will rest with the regional chair.