The committee will send information to the membership concerning the regional qualification and format changes for 2005-06 to give coaches an opportunity for review and time to prepare for the changes.

Also, the committee has requested that a $3,500 stipend be available beginning in 2005-06 for an institution to host a regional event. The committee is awaiting final budget approval from the Executive Committee.

Committee members also agreed to the following format and criteria for each region to qualify participants to the regional tournaments, effective in 2004-05:

Each region will use a pool format that includes a minimum of one round of pools to advance to the final.

Also, institutions must submit an entry form by the required deadline for their student-athletes to qualify for the regional championships.

In addition to discussing the new regional format, the committee also took action regarding the 2005 championships. Members decided that competition on Friday and Saturday will begin at 9:30 a.m. instead of 10 a.m. The committee also discussed regional allocations for each weapon.

The 2005 regionals, scheduled for March 5 and/or 6, will be held as follows:

Call for split championship

The committee discussed a recommendation from fencing coaches to split the men's and women's championships into two events, as was the case before 1990 when the events became a single National Collegiate championship.

Committee members noted that currently, nine of 43 institutions that sponsor fencing offer single-gender or mixed programs, which means that 21 percent of the institutions eligible for participation in the championships have no expectation of ever being awarded the national title. Additionally, two of these programs are single-gender schools that do not even have the option of fielding both a men's and women's team.

Since the fencing championships were combined in 1990, no institution that offers a single-gender or mixed program has been among the top four finishers in any year.

The Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet's bracket and format subcommittee did not support the committee's previous recommendation to provide awards within gender categories in February 2002. Therefore, fencing committee members say the only recourse is to recommend the separation of the championships, since that would appear to be the only way the national championship can be attainable by all sponsoring institutions.

The committee also noted that no additional officials would be required -- the championships would be administered as they are now, with two days for each gender, and regionals would continue to be concurrent for both genders. The only additional cost would be one set of four team trophies.

The committee also recommends that a single committee continue to administer both championships.

Committee members agreed to forward the idea of a split championship to the Championships/Competition Cabinet as a "discussion item."

In other action, the committee recommended that Kristen Foley, assistant athletics director/senior woman administrator at Temple University, be named the next chair. Foley would replace Sherry Posthumus, assistant athletics director at Stanford University, whose term on the committee expires in September.