Division I Baseball Championship

Dates and sites: Regionals will be June 4-6 at 16 on-campus and predetermined sites. Super regionals will be June 11-14 at eight on- and off-campus sites. The College World Series will be June 13-23 at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska.

Field: Sixty-four teams, selected by the 10-member Division I Baseball Committee. Thirty conferences have been granted automatic qualification.

Selection date: All teams and pairings will be announced live at noon Eastern time May 31 on ESPN2.

2003 champion: Rice.

Top contenders: Texas, Stanford, Rice, Miami (Florida), LSU, East Carolina.

Championship notes: Texas and Stanford are running neck-and-neck for the favorite's role approaching the championship. Stanford, currently ranked among hitting leaders with a .332 batting average and scoring 8.9 runs per game, took two of three games from Texas in mid-February, scored 19 runs in the series and handed the Longhorns' J. P. Howell his only loss of the season. Howell was 11-1 through May 9 with a 1.77 earned-run average ... Texas, however, has dominated defending champ Rice, going 4-0 against its cross-state rival. One of the Owls' outstanding trio of junior pitchers, preseason player-of-the-year favorite Jeff Niemann, has been sidelined by an injury since early April, but undefeated Wade Townsend (9-0) has combined with Phillip Humber to rank among the best Division I pitchers in earned-run average ... Miami (Florida) is averaging nine runs per game and batting .331 as it seeks its first title since 2001 ... LSU's outfield trio of Ryan Patterson, J. C. Holt and Jon Zeringue have powered to Tigers to a .334 team batting average ... East Carolina senior outfielder Ryan Jones leads Division I in slugging percentage (.962) and has collected 18 home runs and 62 runs batted in.

Division I Women's Rowing Championship

Dates and site: The championship will be May 28-30 at the CSUS Aquatic Center in Sacramento, California.

Field: Twelve teams, including one from each region. Each team will be required to field two boats of eight rowers each and one boat of four rowers. Four eight-women boats from institutions not represented in the team competition also will be selected. No Fours will be chosen on an at-large basis.

Selection date: May 18.

2003 team champion: Harvard.

Top team contenders: An early May poll by USRowing and the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association ranked California, Princeton, Michigan, Brown and Ohio State in the top five.

Championship notes: Since the national championship was established in 1997, only three schools have captured the national title. Last year's champion Harvard was the first school besides Washington and Brown to win. The Huskies and the Bears have earned three championships apiece ... No. 2 Princeton is one of four teams that have appeared in every championship since it began in 1997. The Tigers' best finish came that same year, when they placed second ... California's varsity eight and second varsity eight completed an undefeated regular-season schedule. The Bears are seeking their first Pacific-10 Conference championship since 1979 and their sixth consecutive national championship appearance ... Ohio State's drive for it's fifth straight berth is boosted by Annabelle Fago, the Big Ten Conference rowing freshman of the year. Fago earned two silver medals at the 2000 and 2002 World Championships as a member of German National Team.

Division I Men's Track and Field Championships

Dates and sites: Four regional qualifying meets will be May 28-29 at Florida, LSU, Texas A&M and Cal State Northridge. The championships will be June 9-12 at Texas.

Field: A total of 544 athletes will compete in the championships. Athletes qualify by finishing in the top five in each individual event and in the top three in each relay event at four regional meets. In the decathlon and 10,000-meter run, athletes qualify directly to the national championships by reaching the automatic and provisional standards established.

Selection date: The spots remaining in the field after the automatic qualifiers are entered will be filled from the descending-order list of qualifiers June 1.

2003 team champion: Arkansas.

Top team contenders: Arkansas, LSU, Florida, Auburn.

Championships notes: Arkansas' Alistair Cragg, who has won a combined five Division I track titles indoors and outdoors, ran the fastest 5,000-meter time in the world this year (13:16.98) April 30. He is one of 11 Razorbacks ranked in Trackwire's event-by-event Dandy Dozen, which also lists freshman Wallace Spearmon atop the rankings in the 200-meter dash ... LSU won the indoor championships in March with a one-two-three sweep in the triple jump, and again will look to John Moffitt and LeJuan Simon to pile up needed points in that event and the long jump ... A talented crew of freshmen, including sprinter Keron Clement and jumper Mike Morrison, already has made its mark by helping Florida to a runner-up finish at the indoor championships, and raised the Gators' hopes for outpointing their Southeastern Conference rivals in Austin ... The meet's biggest question may be the degree to which the SEC dominates the team standings. Auburn, runner-up at last year's meet, could join Arkansas, LSU and Florida at the top.

Division I Women's Track and Field Championships

Dates and sites: Four regional qualifying meets will be May 28-29 at Florida, LSU, Texas A&M and Cal State Northridge. The championships will be June 9-12 at Texas.

Field: A total of 544 athletes will compete in the championships. Athletes qualify by finishing in the top five in each individual event and in the top three in each relay event at four regional meets. In the heptathlon and 10,000-meter run, athletes qualify directly to the national championships by reaching the automatic and provisional standards established.

Selection date: The spots remaining in the field after the automatic qualifiers are entered will be filled from the descending-order list of qualifiers June 1.

2003 team champion: LSU.

Top team contenders: LSU, UCLA, Texas, Nebraska.

Championships notes: LSU again is well-represented in sprints, middle distances and hurdles. Muna Lee anchors a 400-meter relay team that posted the best time of the season in Division I (42.92) April 23, and Lolo Jones is among top contenders in the 100-meter hurdles ... UCLA hasn't won the title since 1983, but has been runner-up at four of the last six meets and is looking for a breakthrough. The Bruins' Monique Henderson is a top contender in the 200- and 400-meter events, and the team also can score in jumps and throws ... Sophomore sprint phenomenon Sanya Richards and Texas seriously challenged for the team trophy last year, and the relatively young Longhorns are capable of taking the final step this year in their home stadium ... Another Big 12 Conference power, Nebraska, boasts two defending champions: Ineta Radevica, who won last year's triple jump and also is among contenders in the long jump, and shot-put titlist Becky Breisch, who is a threat to double after posting the best mark so far this season in the discus.