The Division II Championships Committee has approved changes to the date formula for the NCAA Division II Football Championship.

The committee, which met June 24-27, agreed that the first round of competition will be conducted the Saturday of the 12th week after the first permissible date of competition with subsequent rounds conducted over the next four Saturdays. The final will be played the Saturday of the 16th week after the first permissible date of competition.

The group also approved a recommended definition from the Division II Football Committee for an in-region contest. Implementation of the following definition will be effective with the bracket expansion in 2004:

Games vs. opponents in an institution's defined region.

Games vs. opponents in the institution's state that are not in its defined region (for example, the University of Nebraska at Kearney could play the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and count the game as an in-region contest).

Games vs. opponents in states contiguous to an institution's defined region will count as an in-region contest (for example, Shepherd College could play Bowie State University and count the game as an in-region contest).

Institutions in California, Oregon and Washington will be considered contiguous to all Southwest region states (for example, Northwest Missouri State University could play Western Washington University and count the game as an in-region contest).

In other items, the Championships Committee acted based on recommendations from the following governing sports committees:

Men's basketball -- Approved recommendations that future regional hosts must have a minimum seating capacity of 1,000 and that potential hosts must include a good-faith estimate from each hotel named in the bid that includes the hotel rate and that the rooms will be held through Tuesday following selections. Hotels should be within 30 minutes of the competition venue.

Women's basketball -- Approved the Hot Springs Convention Center and Henderson State University to host the 2005 and 2006 Division II Women's Basketball Championship.

Men's golf -- Established a minimum yardage for courses that are used for regular-season and postseason tournaments that count toward selection to the Division II Men's Golf Championships. Those minimums are: par 70 -- 6,000 yards, par 71 -- 6,100 yards, par 72 -- 6,200 yards.

Women's golf -- Approved a recommendation that effective with the 2003-04 season, 25 percent of a team's opponents must be Division II in-region opponents.

Wrestling -- Approved the following regional realignment, effective for 2003-04: Minnesota State University Moorhead; University of Minnesota, Morris; Northern State University; and Southwest State University will be moved from the Midwest region to the North region (formerly known as the North Central region). The change would increase the North region from seven to 10 institutions while the Midwest region would consist of nine rather than 11 institutions.

The Championships Committee also approved a change regarding selection criteria and strength of schedule. In response to the concerns that teams' strength-of-schedule ratings could be adversely affected by playing a low-rated early-round opponent in a conference postseason tournament, the committee approved the following change:

"That postseason competition would count in the strength of schedule, effective 2003-04; however, a win in postseason competition cannot lower a team's strength of schedule. If a win lowers a team's strength of schedule, the committee should revert back to the previous strength of schedule for selection purposes."