The role of the regional advisory committees and a review of the new championships selection criteria were major discussion topics during a recent meeting of the NCAA Division III Football Committee.

The committee, which met February 8-11 in Sarasota, Florida, reaffirmed the advisory committees' contribution to the research and analysis of data involved in the evaluation of teams. To assist the committees, a computer model that will produce the necessary data regarding opponents' winning percentage and the winning percentage of opponents of opponents will be developed for the 2000 season.

Selection criteria for all Division III team championships that were implemented for the 1999-00 academic year will remain in place for 2000-01. Championship berths are allocated into three pools, rather than a predetermined number of berths being awarded to each region.

The committee will continue its evaluation of the selection criteria during the 2000 season and forward its comments and suggestions to the Division III Championships Committee by January 2001.

In preparation for the upcoming season, the group reviewed the current sponsorship list and determined that the champions of the following 17 conferences will receive an automatic berth in the 2000 championships: American Southwest, Centennial, Freedom Football, Heartland Collegiate Athletic, Illini-Badger Football, Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic, Middle Atlantic States, Midwest, Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic, New England Football, New Jersey Athletic, North Coast Athletic, Ohio Athletic, Old Dominion Athletic, Southern Collegiate Athletic and Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conferences; and the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.

In addition to the automatic qualifiers (Pool A), seven berths in the championship will be allocated to independent institutions and institutions that are members of non-automatic qualifying conferences (Pool B), and four berths will go to teams from automatic-qualifying conferences that are not their conference champion (Pool C).

In a related matter, the committee recommended that all institutions in California (California Lutheran University, Chapman University, Claremont McKenna-Harvey Mudd-Scripps Colleges, University of La Verne, Menlo College, Occidental College, Pomona-Pitzer Colleges, University of Redlands and Whittier College) be realigned from the South evaluation region to the West evaluation region.

In other actions, the committee:

* Agreed to place more emphasis on the awards ceremony following the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl.

* Decided to conduct a conference call with all prospective NCAA game representatives in early November in order to give the committee the opportunity to review championship policies and procedures with the representatives before the selection of teams.

* Approved a new officials evaluation form, which will be distributed to participating head coaches and the NCAA representative at each playoff game.

* Directed the national office staff to research transportation reimbursement policies regarding local transportation.