The committee also noted that:

Any change in the membership of an existing conference (for example, addition of new members or affiliate members) will trigger the two-year waiting period to receive a Pool A conference automatic qualification for a multisport conference.

New multisport conferences are required to fulfill the two-year waiting period to receive the conference automatic qualification. There will be no waivers of this requirement.

The Championships Committee believes the amendments will help clarify the requirements. Committee members felt the need to make those recommendations to the Division III Management Council because of an increasing number of inquiries to the committee over the last several months regarding the desire to combine groups of institutions and members of multiple conferences for the purpose of acquiring automatic qualification.

Committee members believe that the inclusion of affiliate members in the requirements will allow conferences a certain amount of flexibility in obtaining automatic qualification without violating the moratorium on creating single-sport conferences that was imposed in 1998. The group also believes that implementing the two-year waiting period would ensure continuity of membership within conferences before automatic qualification is awarded.

The current bylaws only require conferences to have seven active members. The Championships Committee believes the recommendations provide more accurate parameters to define the seven-team minimum.

In another matter regarding automatic qualification, the committee discussed the concept of applying automatic-qualification principles to selected individual/team sports (for example, cross country, golf, tennis) while maintaining the individual portion of each of the championships. The committee supports the concept, though members acknowledge that implementation would not be financially feasible until at least the 2006-07 academic year. The committee recommends that individual sports committees be responsible for proposing championship format changes to accommodate the increased numbers as submitted.

The Division II Championships Committee also has supported the proposal, but the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet remanded the proposal back to the rules committee, saying that mechanics already are in place for soccer officials to enforce existing conduct policies, and that any zero-tolerance rule would be better applied as an Association-wide effort rather than sport by sport. In that vein, the Division III Championships Committee recommended that the Playing Rules Oversight Committee ask all playing rules committees to consider implementing the zero-tolerance language policy.

The championships group also supported a Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports recommendation to require that protective eyewear be worn in women's lacrosse championships beginning in 2004. The Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet also supported that recommendation. The United States Lacrosse Association, whose playing rules the NCAA uses for women's lacrosse (with some modifications), has indicated it will mandate protective eyewear beginning with the 2005 regular season.

Other highlights

Division III Championships Committee
June 23-25/La Jolla, California

Voted to allow institutions the opportunity to purchase additional championships awards. The number of awards that may be purchased would depend upon the official institutional squad list (that is, the difference between the championship travel party size and the total number of student-athletes listed on the institutional squad list).

Charged the Division III Women's Volleyball Committee with changing its championship date formula to eliminate the week off between rounds (that is, the semifinals and finals would be played during Thanksgiving weekend). The Championships Committee, citing other sport committees that did not take a week off before the finals, believes date formulas among sports should be as consistent as possible.

Reviewed the proposed score reporting form and recommended that institutions be required to distinguish in-region competition as either competition within their defined region or use of the 200-mile radius policy.

Approved a recommendation from the men's and women's soccer committees to conduct their championships at predetermined sites beginning in 2004. The committee noted, however, that neither the men's soccer committee nor the women's soccer committee favors a single site for a combined championship format.

Approved the following regional sites for the 2003 Division III Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships: Atlantic Region -- State University College at Geneseo; Midwest Region -- University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire; and West Region -- Lewis and Clark University. Also approved Chippewa Valley Convention and Visitors' Bureau and Wisconsin-Eau Claire as hosts for the 2004 championships.

Approved Illinois Wesleyan University as host for the 2005 Division III Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships and St. Olaf College as host for the 2006 championships.

Approved the following regional sites for the 2004 Division III Wrestling Championships: Great Lakes -- Concordia University (Wisconsin), and Midwest -- Manchester College. Also approved St. Olaf as host for the 2005 championships at the Tostrud Center in Northfield, Minnesota.