The Men's and Women's Fencing Committee voted to make major changes to the national championships format at its recent meeting in Indianapolis.

The group approved a 12-strip format in addition to the current eight-strip format. The 12-strip format will be the preferred format, as it will allow competition in each of the weapons (epée, foil and sabre) to begin at the same time.

The determination as to which format is to be used will be based on venue size. The championships will continue to be contested by gender, with one gender competing on the first two days of the championships and the other on the third and fourth days.

The committee also adjusted the reasons for which institutions must submit petitions for student-athletes not to participate in the regional championships. The previous guidelines called for a petition to be filed if a fencer was going to miss the regionals due to competing in a certified World Cup event and he or she was among the top six in a U.S. Senior National ranking.

The adjustment is that the fencer now must be ranked among the top four in a senior national ranking and that the petition must be approved by the Fencing Committee.

A change also was made to the commonly known "50 percent rule." In the past, a petition had to filed and approved for a fencer to compete in the national championships when he or she had missed more than 50 percent of the team's dual meets against varsity teams of four-year, degree-granting institutions.

The change was to replace dual meets with collegiate team dates of competition or collegiate team contests. That means that a fencer can satisfy the requirement by competing in 50 percent of the scheduled dual meets or competing in at least one dual meet on 50 percent of dates during which the team is competing in collegiate dual meets.

A subcommittee was established to review the current U.S. Fencing Association rules and report to the full committee on whether an NCAA rules committee is needed.

The committee also accepted the withdrawal of the resignation of chair Denis Elton Cochran-Fikes of the University of Pennsylvania. Cochran-Fikes will continue to serve as chair through the remainder of his term, which expires September 1, 2002.

In other actions, the committee:

Recommended to the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet an increase in the officials' fees from $75 to $100 per day.

Voted to include the statistician and two armorers on the list of officials.

Confirmed March 21-24 as the dates for the 2002 championships at a site yet to be determined.

Requested that the official championships entry form be accessible on the NCAA Web site, effective with the 2002 championships.

Set the dates and sites for the 2002 regionals as follows: Mid-Atlantic/South -- March 9-10 at Pennsylvania; Midwest -- March 9 at Case Western Reserve; Northeast -- March 10 at Columbia-Barnard; and West -- March 9 at Stanford.

Regional allocations

The Men's and Women's Fencing Committee has approved the following regional allocations for the 2002 championships: