Division I-A football and Division II women's lacrosse have little in common, but until this year they shared at least one thing -- not having an NCAA champion decided on the field. That will change this year for lacrosse.

As a result of an April 2000 decision by the Division II Championships Committee, the division will hold its inaugural championship, a four-team tournament, May 12-13 at an on-campus site.

Until now, Division II -- especially last year -- has had to guess which women's lacrosse team was its best. Arguable exceptions were in 1998 and 1999, when one slot in the now-defunct National Collegiate Championship field was reserved for a Division II representative, essentially a first-round sacrificial lamb, which was determined by the NCAA Women's Lacrosse Committee. Both years, West Chester was selected. Last year, the Division II tournament reservation was eliminated and the field was all Division I. Yes, a Division II team could still get in, just as pre-1998, but to do so, it would have to beat out a Division I team. That never happened in those 17 years.

Naturally, teams that ended previous seasons with conference tournaments welcome the change, including Gannon University, coached by Jim Nestor.

"But with the players knowing that there is a national championship now, I think they are working a little bit harder. Our goal has been to take one game at a time and become better, but really, the main thing is that we're more excited."

There also is more enthusiasm at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania.

"We have five seniors," said coach Bertie Landes. "If there was ever a year to go for it, this is it."

Understand that lacrosse geography is not what you see on a Rand McNally map. Both Gannon and Shippensburg, though they are in Pennsylvania, are in the South region, which at the season's outset housed as many as the top-nine ranked teams in the country, depending on whom you asked. With the belief being that the South is stronger, the Northern teams had a better chance of each player making the cast of "Survivor" than earning the lone division bid. For that reason, those teams may have welcomed the change even more than the Southerners, if that's possible.

"It just adds so much excitement," said Kelly McGowan, coach at Bentley College. "Now we have something to look forward to other than playing for the conference championship."

Regional structure an issue

Two teams will be selected from each of the two regions and will play each other in the semifinals for the right to advance to the title game. Given the current perceived disparity between the two regions, it's likely that two of the top four teams in the nation could be left sitting at home.

"I don't know the ins and outs of having to keep conferences together, but it seems as though they could have taken some of the top teams that could geographically be in either region (Gannon; University of California, Davis) and put them in the North," said Cathy Frick, coach at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

Nestor also thought the regional structuring could stand another look.

McGowan had a different take. Also the field hockey coach for the Falcons, she is accustomed to the regions, which were basically the same for her fall sport.

"Every coach wants the regions split up so the strongest teams don't end up in the same region, but we've not had a championship for so long, we're just happy to have four teams," McGowan said.

Barbara Cleghorn, assistant director of athletics at West Chester University of Pennsylvania and chair of the Division II Women's Lacrosse Committee, does not see a problem with coaches disagreeing about the regional alignment -- it's all part of the game.

"Even though there have been some grumblings about the regions and the selection criteria, that's just the competitive nature of the schools coming through," she said.

Division II growth

Patricia Nicol, associate athletics director at Southern Connecticut State, said that she expects collegiate growth to continue in New England, both because of the championship and because of the boom in high-school programs.

"We have watched the trend of high schools adding it in New England," Nicol said. "(Lacrosse has) always been a great spectator sport and it is now one of our conference sports. We also needed to address some (gender) proportionality issues. The addition of the championship bracket was the final factor."

Michael Daly, coach and assistant director of athletics at Stonehill College, agreed.

"It will help ADs consider adding it," he said. "Before, at the end the year, what did you do, play for the ECAC? That's all well and good but it's not attractive enough to get someone to add the sport. This is. It will cause more conferences to form, strengthen Division II and eventually strengthen all of lacrosse. I expect our conference (Northeast 10) to eventually have 15 lacrosse teams.

"This gives (our sport) an identity that we didn't have before."

And a new trophy, the winner of which will be decided on the field rather than off.