Championship issues dominated discussion at the Division III Women's Volleyball Committee meeting February 11-14 in Key West, Florida.

The committee voted on a proposal that would keep institutions that have not paid their 2003 fines by August 1, 2004, out of consideration for ranking or selection for the 2004 championship season. The Division III Championships Committee must approve the proposal.

The volleyball committee also approved the 38 automatic-qualifying conferences for the 2004 championship that will be conducted at the Mayo Clinic Center in Rochester, Minnesota, November 26-27.

The committee also discussed regional rankings and decided that keeping a numerical list by region was appropriate and helped coaches see where their teams ranked throughout the season. They also confirmed they wanted to rank eight schools per region, though the regions are not equally balanced in the number of teams that compete in each area.

The committee reviewed information from the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports regarding pre-season conditioning and heat-related injuries. However, the group did not support the proposed format because volleyball is typically played inside air-conditioned gyms, and practicing for more than two hours is not practical for volleyball. Committee members also noted that if practices were reduced significantly, teams would not be ready for competition.