The Division II Men's Basketball Committee reviewed its championship selection criteria and formed recommendations for change at its annual meeting June 1-4 in Bonita Springs, Florida.

After meeting with a representative of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), who expressed that organization's concerns with some of the prior criteria, the committee voted to recommend to the Division II Championships Committee that the primary criteria for next year's championships be overall win-loss record, overall strength of schedule, regional win-loss record, regional strength of schedule, head-to-head competition and availability of student-athletes. The following will be considered as other criteria: performance against Division II teams with a winning percentage above .500, against Division II teams with a winning percentage below .500, against Division II teams ranked in the region, against Division II teams ranked out of region, and against common opponents. The committee also recommended that conference games be included in strength of schedule.

A system of bonus points to reward a school for playing a strong schedule already has been approved for next season's championship. Under this system, one point will be added to each team's strength-of-schedule rating for each opponent's regional strength of schedule after the 16th game of the season, provided that the games are in-region, nonconference games.

The committee will do further study on the selection criteria, looking into the possibility of counting only Division II games in a new win-loss percentage and strength-of-schedule formula for both total games and regional games. The committee will look at this past year's results and remove all non-Division II games to see what effect that would have had on this past season's tournament field. Should the committee decide that the system would be an improvement, it would be proposed for the 2004-05 season.

Changing the regional format was also a topic of discussion. The committee will forward to the championships committee in September a document recommending a change from the current eight-team regional format to two four-team sites within each region, with the Nos. 1 and 2 teams each serving as a host. The games would be played on Saturday and Sunday, with the two winners meeting at the higher seed's site the next Tuesday. The committee's rationale is that the format would increase attendance, save money and cut down on officials' travel. The national office staff is studying this past season's bracket to determine the cost comparison if such a system had been in place. The staff, using this past year's bracket, already has determined that the proposed system would have reduced the number of team flights from 30 to 19.

The committee also is going to require that first-round opponents in each regional game exchange videotapes of their last game played. A quality videotape must be received by midnight the Tuesday after selections.

Other recommendations forwarded from the meeting include:

Requiring that in order to host a regional, an institution must have a facility that seats a minimum of 1,000 spectators. The committee also recommended minimum ticket prices for single sessions at $8 for reserved, $6 for general admission and $3 for students. The recommended minimum prices for an all-session ticket were $26, $18 and $10, respectively.

Requiring that each potential regional host hotel's bid include the room rate as well as a good-faith estimate that includes a provision that the rooms will be held until the Tuesday after selections. This will help the committee ensure that all teams receive equal access to rooms.

That the Carolinas-Virginia Conference be moved to the South Atlantic region and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association be moved to the East region. The goal of the recommendation is to provide better opportunities geographically for teams in these regions to play more in-region games.