The Division II Championships Committee acted on a number of football-related issues at its January 27-30 meeting in Indianapolis.

The committee received the report of the Division II Football Issues Project Team and focused particular attention on how to equalize postseason opportunities for Division II men and women when the Division II Football Championship is increased from 16 to 24 teams in 2004.

The Championships Committee concluded that rather than simply expanding the field size for selected women's championships, the division would be better served if it assessed bracket sizes in selected men's and women's sports, keeping in mind that the objective is to maintain the current 50-50 male-female postseason participation ratio.

With that in mind, the committee asked the following committees to submit proposals for bracket expansion: baseball, field hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, and women's volleyball. The Championships Committee requested that the proposals be submitted in time for consideration at its September meeting.

In other football-related issues, the committee:

Sent a regional realignment proposal back to the Division II Football Committee. The Championships Committee asked that group to consider geographic proximity, balancing the number of institutions among the regions and assigning a like number of conferences to each region. The Football Committee also was asked to consider the scheduling impact that the regional make-up would have on small conferences or independent institutions.

Recommended that the Management Council sponsor legislation to permit football to use an "earned-access" approach for championship qualification. The Football Issues Project Team will continue to consider exactly how the earned-access approach will apply. See the October 14, 2002, issue of The NCAA News for more information on the earned-access concept.

Clarified the definition of a "nonconference opponent." Larger conferences often assign schedules that may not permit every member to play one another; to fill out their schedules, some institutions have played other conference members and counted them as "nonconference" games since they were not listed on the conference schedule. The new definition would state that an institution may not play a member of its own conference and count it as a "nonconference" game.

Expanded the Division II Football Committee from four to eight members but deferred on the selection of the new members until regional realignment is complete.

Other business

The committee also made several schedule adjustments to accommodate the Division II spring sports festival, which will be conducted in May 2004. The men's and women's golf championships now will be conducted May 11-14, while women's lacrosse will be conducted May 13-15.

The Championships Committee also will ask the Division II Management Council for legislation to allow the Division II Women's Rowing Championship to begin before noon on a Sunday to take advantage of calmer water conditions. Division I already has approved the change; the Division III championship is conducted on a Saturday.

In other actions, the committee:

Approved a format for the 32-team women's soccer championship. The championship will be conducted over three weekends. Two rounds will be played at eight first-round sites, with eight teams advancing to quarterfinal action the next weekend. Four teams then will advance the following weekend to the final round, which will include the semifinals and final.

Selected Raleigh, North Carolina, as site of the 2003 Division II Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships. St. Augustine's College will serve as host.

Assigned Jim Naumovich, commissioner of the Great Lakes Valley Conference, and Clyde Doughty Jr., athletics director at New York Institute of Technology, as Championships Committee representatives to a task force examining discretionary time for Division II student-athletes.