The Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet has determined its budget priorities for the next two years, and bracket expansion in three sports and the establishment of predetermined sites in women's basketball top the list.

With just a little more than $1 million from the proposed budget for 2003-04 allocated to Division I initiatives (of which Division I championships initiatives are a part), the cabinet faced its usual challenge of fielding more requests than it had dollars to give. The priorities selected total about $900,000.

The bracket expansion requests are in women's softball (from 48 to 64 teams), men's ice hockey and men's lacrosse (both from 12 to 16 teams). Those are the last three team sports in Division I to have been asked for expansion plans without action being taken.

The cabinet supported the expansions as a package, since taken together they would not alter the gender balance in championships opportunities. The cabinet also based its support on information from its newly created bracket/format subcommittee, which has worked during the last year to provide bracketing parameters based on sponsorship levels and conferences eligible for automatic qualification. Softball and men's ice hockey and lacrosse meet those criteria.

As for predetermined sites in women's basketball, the issue has been brewing for several years, and the cabinet's support for funding is the next step in the plan's maturation. If approved, the Division I Women's Basketball Committee will select 16 predetermined sites in July for the 2003 championship. Those sites would include at least two each from the East, Mideast, Midwest and West regions. Sites also would include home arenas of teams that end up being selected to participate in the championship. In fact, the cabinet has asked that for the first two years, no more than four neutral sites be selected, which guarantees that at least 12 teams will host first- and second-round games.

The cabinet's request is twofold: first, it ensures that the concept of predetermined sites -- and ultimately, the goal of predetermined, neutral sites such as what exists in men's basketball -- is phased in over time; second, it is a cost-effective measure. Having 12 sites hosted and neutral sites at the other four venues is projected to cost about $275,000, while having all 64 teams travel would cost more than $1 million.

Though the cabinet has put the bracket expansion and predetermined-site proposals among its highest budget priorities, they are by no means final. The Division I Budget Committee, Management Council and Board of Directors still must approve the initiatives before the Executive Committee gives its final OK on the budget this summer.

In other action, the cabinet reaffirmed its support for bracketing and travel policies it endorsed last fall after the September 11 terrorist attacks. The measures taken in the fall were to limit seeding and emphasize bracketing by geographic proximity as much as possible, which now will be carried through the winter and spring championships, as well.

The cabinet noted that the men's basketball committee, which could be affected by regional-bracketing parameters more than others because of its reliance on predetermined sites, also has taken appropriate steps through new bracketing principles that emphasize geographic proximity.

The group also considered a request from the Division I Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Committee to move the men's and women's championships from March to April. The swimming committee wants the women's meet moved from the third Thursday-Saturday in March to the first Thursday-Saturday in April, and the men's meet moved from the fourth Thursday-Saturday in March to the second Thursday-Saturday in April.

The cabinet acknowledged that while the proposal does move the men's championships away from the Final Fours (which is the proposal's primary goal), the women's championships would experience the same difficulty under the proposal that the men currently experience. Cabinet members also were unclear on how the proposal would affect conference meets and thus decided to send the proposal to conferences for additional feedback.

Other highlights

Division I Championships/ Competition Cabinet

February 5-7/Indianapolis

Supported a format change for the College World Series effective in 2003 that provides for the eight teams to compete in two four-team double-elimination brackets that would produce two teams that would play a best-of-three series to determine the national champion.

Endorsed a recommendation from the Division I Women's Volleyball Committee to conduct regional-round sessions of the 2003 championship at predetermined sites.

Noted that sponsorship of women's bowling soon may reach the minimum number of institutions (40) required to establish a National Collegiate championship, possibly as early as 2003-04, and recommended approval of funds to support such a championship.

Recommended changing the start and end dates of cabinet member terms from September 1 to July 1. The cabinet believes that since the group's budget meeting occurs in September in future years, new members need to have attended a meeting before that in order to obtain experience. Under the proposal, new cabinet members will have attended the cabinet's June meeting on an orientation basis before the September budget meeting.

Endorsed a recommendation from the cabinet's Football Certification Subcommittee to lift the current moratorium that runs through 2003-04 limiting the number of bowls to no more than 26. The Football Study Oversight Committee has recommended keeping the moratorium in place. The cabinet supported two other recommendations from the certification subcommittee that were endorsed by the oversight committee, including a recommendation that, on a one-year trial basis, teams finishing 6-6 in 2002 would be bowl eligible. The cabinet also endorsed the Division I-AA Football Championship game being played on the third Friday in December.

Created two new subcommittees, one that will hear appeals on sports committee decisions related to misconduct, and another that will deliberate on television and broadcasting issues.

Student-athlete time demands - In an effort to address concerns from the Board of Directors regarding student-athlete time demands, the cabinet's playing and practice seasons subcommittee began working in earnest on its Bylaw 17 deregulation package and will present an initial set of proposals for the cabinet to review during a subsequent conference call.