The Divisions I, II and III NCAA Women's Volleyball Committees conducted their annual meetings in February and modified several championships policies and procedures.

In Division I, the committee focused on future site selection, awarding the 2005, 2006 and 2007 finals sites to San Antonio; Omaha, Nebraska; and Sacramento, California, respectively. (For more information on the site selections, see the related story in the March 4 issue of The NCAA News).

The committee also reviewed a proposal for predetermined regional sites for the 2003 championship. The Championships/Competition Cabinet endorsed the proposal during its February meeting, but funding for the proposal will not be determined until the Division I budget is finalized later this year.

The Division I committee also refined the video-exchange policy for participating institutions during the 2002 championship and increased the minimum number of hours between play for advancing teams during the preliminary rounds from 20 to 22. The latter is an effort to give student-athletes additional rest and recovery during first- and second-round matches and regional competition.

In other actions, the Division I committee:

Reversed the order of press conferences at all rounds of championship play so that the non-advancing team attends first, followed by the advancing team.

Increased the cooling-off period for teams in all rounds of the championship from five to 10 minutes.

Recommended an increase in the minimum ticket prices for championship competition.

Divisions II and III

The Division II committee, which met February 12-15 in Key West, Florida, adjusted selection criteria and the regional rankings worksheet to help the committee better evaluate eligible teams.

The committee reconfigured the selection criteria to emphasize strength of schedule above

overall won-lost record. Division II won-lost record within region also was added as the fourth criterion of five.

Regarding automatic qualification, the committee recommended that the Heartland Conference receive an automatic berth in 2002, and that the Great Northwest Conference and Central Atlantic Conference receive automatic qualification in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

The committee also:

Agreed that new score-reporting forms will be distributed to coaches in late spring.

Encouraged institutions to ensure that won-lost records (both the institutions' won-lost records and the opponents' won-lost records) are accurate on submitted forms.

Reduced practice time to one half-hour on the day of championship competition due to minimal use of the one-hour allotment.

Changed the submission and return dates for the officials recommendation forms.

In Division III, the committee made two significant recommendations for the 2002 season. Meeting February 11-14 in Palm Springs, California, the committee recommended a change to the order in which the third-place trophy is awarded in order to enhance the student-athlete experience. The third-place team now will receive its trophy immediately after the third-place match instead of at the end of the championship match. All-tournament team members still will be announced after the championship match.

Regarding fees and per diem, the committee recommended that the fee paid to officials in the semifinals and championship be increased from $375 to $400. For teams that do not advance in the regional tournament, the committee recommended that they be allowed to stay through the regional finals and pay the per diem for the travel party if the cost to move the flights to an earlier departure exceeds the per diem cost.