The Division III Softball Committee agreed at its July 5-8 meeting to a new championship format beginning with the 2006 championship when the bracket is expanded to 59 teams.

Pending approval by the Division III Championships Committee, the new format would establish five seven-team first-round sites and three eight-team sites. The move would accommodate plans to expand the bracket by 16 teams. Competition will run Thursday through Sunday at the five locations hosting seven teams each. The three eight-team sites will play Thursday through Monday.

The group also voted to recommend a change in the championship date formula used to set the date for the finals. Effective with the 2006-07 academic year, the national championship will be contested on the weekend before Memorial Day weekend (Tuesday through Friday). The action, which also must be approved by the Championships Committee, resulted after feedback from the date change survey and from the Championships Committee, which expressed an interest in more closely aligning the championships schedules for Division III baseball and softball.

In reviewing the championship selection criteria, the committee recommended to the Championships Committee a clarification of the definition of a neutral-site game to mean a game played at a site at which neither team plays the majority of its home games. The group also agreed to define "home field" as the locale where most of a team's home games are played. Currently, a neutral-site game is one contested at neither team's locale and is considered an away game.

In other action, the softball committee recommended that 36 conferences receive automatic qualification status for the 2005 championship. The group also agreed to publish rankings for the 2004-05 academic year on April 14, 21 and 28, and May 5.