The Women's Bowling Committee modified its selection criteria and realigned the sport's competitive regions as part of the committee's recent annual meeting in Indianapolis.

Pending approval from the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet, the committee will eliminate the criterion requiring that one school from each region be selected. Committee members agreed that teams should be selected on a national basis, rather than regionally. The change was based in part on the committee's belief that the guaranteed-team-per-region requirement restricts its ability to select the top eight teams for the national tournament.

The committee also reaffirmed a requirement that teams play 15 days of competition for selection purposes. In addition, the quality of win index, a point system that takes into account the strength of a team's opponent, will now be used to help determine championship participants.

In another modification, conference place finish will be considered only in tiebreaker situations rather than as part of the regular selection process. Also, the committee no longer will use out-of-region win-loss records to break ties.

Incoming committee chair Becky Kregling said the committee devoted significant time deciding how to modify the selection criteria, and she believes the debate produced positive results.

"By adding a quality-of-win-index and altering the tiebreaker criteria, we have created a fair way to determine the top eight teams for the season," said Kregling, who is head women's bowling coach at Sacred Heart University.

This, along with eliminating the guaranteed team from each region, gives all schools and divisions an equal opportunity to advance to the championship and allows selection of the top eight teams regardless of conference affiliation or geographical location. These changes should encourage schools to schedule matches against strong teams,"

The committee also spent time sharpening the definition of a tournament to refer to a competition that includes six or more teams. The group agreed that institutions may count only one score per day of competition when competing against the same team. The purpose is to make the game more fan-friendly by bringing teams' records more in line with other sports.

In other actions, the committee voted to realign its three regions into two. Previously, the 46 institutions that sponsor women's bowling had been divided into either the Central, North or South regions. Pending cabinet approval, the sport will move to a structure that clusters sponsoring schools into two regions of about 20 schools each.

Committee members believe the proposed realignment positions the sport for growth in that the two larger regions can easily be divided into four as more programs are added. The two-region alignment also puts women's bowling more in line with other sports with similar sponsorship numbers. As part of the new regional structure, the Northeast region would include 25 schools located in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and North Carolina. The Central region would be composed of 22 schools in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

"When we created the regions two years ago, we kept the conferences together," Kregling said. "This plus geography limited the ways the schools could be divided between the three regions. We felt that while the sport was still in its infancy, two regions was the best way to go. It allows for growth and expansion. It also gave the committee more choices on how to split the 46 schools into balanced, competitive regions."

The group also discussed rules regarding uniforms. In an effort to stay ahead of a growing number of companies manufacturing bowling uniforms, and to be more television-friendly, the committee voted to require each member of the squad to have the school name or initials a minimum of 1 inch high, on the front and/or back of the uniform shirt, although lettering less than 1 inch is permissible on the front of the shirt. Numbers measuring a minimum of 2 inches in height must be visibly displayed on the sleeve or back. Team members must have different numbers; however, any number from 00 to 99 is permissible. Hand-lettering, with the exclusion of professional airbrushing, is not allowed. Teams may wear warm-ups during practice, but will not be allowed to do so during competition.

In preparing for the 2006 championship tournament, the committee voted to start each round at the same time and also granted first choice of lane to the higher seed in the round.