The Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet and Management Council have approved adjustments to seeding, site selection and pairings for the 2001 Division I fall championships.

The measures were developed as a result of the September 11 tragedies and concern for the welfare of student-athletes.

The cabinet agreed that current selection criteria would not be impacted by the principles. On November 1, the Board of Directors reviewed the general policy and made no changes. The described changes are being implemented in light of the unstable world climate in order to minimize air travel and mitigate risk, inconvenience and travel delays to the greatest extent possible. At its February 2002 meeting, the cabinet will review similar issues for winter and spring championships.

The new policies for sports committees to use in determining pairings for fall championships are as follows:

Seed the number of teams the sports committee has the approval to seed, not to exceed a 1:4 ratio based on sport sponsorship. (Number of resulting seeded teams will be: volleyball -- 16; soccer -- eight; Division I-AA football -- four; field hockey -- four.)

Seeded teams will be placed in the bracket first. If there are too many seeded teams from the same region, seeded team(s) may be moved to another region to balance the top seeds. For example, if there are six seeded volleyball teams from the West and only two from another region, two seeded West teams may be moved from the West. The first priority is to move to a neighboring region and not more than one time zone.

If there is a currently approved policy to avoid conference match-ups, this policy will remain in place for the first round only. The sports committee may move a team to a neighboring region (preferably within driving distance and not more than one time zone) to avoid first-round conference matchups.

The remaining teams that have been selected (by the regular selection criteria for automatic qualifiers and at-large selections) will be placed in their most proximate geographic region. Teams seeded Nos. 5 through 16 will be placed geographically to minimize flight travel. A No. 5 through 16 team may be selected to serve as a host to minimize flight travel.

If throughout the process a team needs to be moved to balance the bracket of 16 (that is, more than four top seeds from the same region or to avoid first-round conference matchups), the first priority is to move to a neighboring region, within driving distance, and not more than one time zone.

There is no guarantee that a top-seeded team will host. Site selection will be based on geographic location. Institutions are encouraged to submit bids for hosting even if they are not among the highest-seeded teams. If additional air travel would not be required, a higher-seeded team may be selected to host.

Ground transportation will be required for all sites within 400 miles (current policy is 300 miles), which would allow for greater opportunity for higher-seeded teams to host, as has been the practice in most sports.