The concept of super regionals may not be limited to Division I baseball in the future.

The Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet has given the NCAA Men's and Women's Track and Field Committee permission to survey the division's cross country coaches about a three-tiered championships format that includes super regionals. The proposed revisions are intended to simplify the selection process for teams and individuals to the national championships.

Currently, Division I cross country teams are divided into nine regions. Teams compete in regional meets that take place one week before the national championships.

The top two teams, and the top four individual finishers who are not on a qualifying team, from each of the regional competitions automatically qualify for the Division I championships. Thirteen institutions and two individuals receive at-large bids to the finals, adding to a total field size of 255 per gender.

Among the criteria used to select the at-large teams are the number of wins against teams that qualified for nationals, and the results of head-to-head competition between teams being considered for at-large selections, from the first full weekend in September through the regional meets.

Consequently, coaches of teams that are not overwhelmingly assured of finishing first or second in their regional meets are faced with finding meets that include likely automatic or other potential at-large qualifiers.

"The process has evolved so that most teams that consider themselves contenders for a spot in the national championships go to the pre-NCAA meet at the site of the national championships and the Roy Griak Invitational at Minnesota," said Jim Stintzi, head men's and women's cross country coach at Michigan State University and president of the U.S. Cross Country Coaches Association. "In fact, the fields at those two events have become so large that it takes more than one race to accommodate all of the teams."

Head-to-head favored

According to Stintzi, 11 of the 13 teams selected at large to the 2001 men's national championships participated in both the pre-NCAA meet and the Griak Invitational.

The format on which the upcoming survey is based would maintain the nine current regions, but move the regional meets to five weeks before the national championships. The top 11 teams, and the top three individual finishers not on qualifying teams, would advance to one of three super regionals.

In addition, any team that wins its conference championship but does not finish in the top 11 of its regional meet, would earn a super regional spot. The same would be true for any individual designated as an all-conference performer.

The plan separates the super regionals into the Mountain, South Central and West regions; the Great Lakes, Midwest and South regions; and the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Southeast regions.

The proposal specifies that the super regionals would be held the week before the national championships, the same weekend that the current regional meets are contested. From each of the three super regionals, the top 10 teams and the first eight individuals not on qualifying squads would move on to the national competition.

With 30 seven-person teams and 24 individuals, that leaves the field size at 234. The remaining 21 spots would be filled by three teams selected by the Men's and Women's Track and Field Committee's Division I subcommittee, which handles the current at-large selections.

Proponents of the proposal tout the virtue of the two head-to-head races for determining the national championships participants. Stintzi explained the necessity for leaving three team spots open for at-large selections, rather than simply advancing the top 11 teams from each super regional.

"The coaches from each super regional will always think they have more teams deserving of competing in the national meet than the other two," he said. "Having the three at-large spots will allow the subcommittee to recognize more teams that come out of the stronger super regionals each year."

The proposal currently states that all of the at-large teams could come from the same region, allowing for a maximum of 13 institutions from a super regional qualifying for the finals.

Opponents to the plan contend that the format will provide even more opportunity for teams from the traditionally strong Mountain and West regions to qualify for the national championships.

However, there has been just one occasion (men's and women's championships combined) in which a proposed super regional (using the current regional alignments) would have advanced more than 13 teams since the 31-team national championship field was enacted in 1998. On the other hand, there were nine instances when a three-region group under the plan would not have sent 10 teams to the national meet.

Whether the introduction of super regionals would actually convince coaches not to take their teams to the pre-NCAA meet, the Roy Griak Invitational and other high-profile regular-season events, is a question that does not have an immediate answer.

"The intent is to simplify the process and focus on the head-to-head qualifying races," Stintzi said. "We would like to get away from the 'mega-meets' as well, but that was not the reason behind this idea."

Mark Bockelman, NCAA assistant director of championships and liaison to the Division I subcommittee, hopes to have the survey distributed this fall. "If possible, we would like to give coaches the opportunity to discuss the proposal with their peers at the coaches convention in December," Bockelman said.

The Division I subcommittee likely will make a decision on whether to pursue a championships format change at its June 2003 annual meeting. If the subcommittee decides to move forward, the next step would be to gain the Championships/Competition Cabinet's approval.

Bockelman believes that the NCAA would cover the costs of super regional hosts, so the proposal also carries budget ramifications with it. The next time the Championships/Competition Cabinet is accepting budget requests is at its September 2003 meeting.

Consequently, the 2004 season is the earliest in which super regionals could be introduced into the cross country championships format. However, Bockelman cautions coaches from thinking that they will be added that soon. "The first step must be to explore the desire of the membership through the survey," he said.

Stintzi said a coaches association straw poll was two-thirds in favor of the proposal. "The vast majority of the coaches believe there is a problem with the current selection process," he said. "There were several models considered and this is the one that our executive committee felt addressed their concerns."