The NCAA Men's and Women's Fencing Committee believes every dodge, turn and parry at the national championships should weigh equally when it comes to winning a trophy.

To do that, the committee has developed a series of improvements to the championships -- some already in place and others in the proposal stage.

The latter category contains some important concepts that committee members believe would make the championships experience more rewarding for all participants.

Currently, fencing's team champion is determined by combining the total points of each institution's men's and women's teams. But the rub is that more than 20 percent (10 of 43) of the institutions that compete in the sport have single-gender or mixed programs.

That means none of those teams can accumulate enough points to qualify for the national title, no matter how well their individual fencers fare at the national championships.

To rectify the problem, the fencing committee is recommending that awards be presented to the top four men's and women's teams, as well as the top combined teams. The cost of distributing eight additional awards is estimated at $3,200.

"We just feel there should be a way to officially acknowledge a school that just has a single-gender team," said Northwestern University fencing coach Laurence Schiller, whose institution sponsors only a women's team. "This is like having swimming and no diving, or track and no field. It becomes an impossible situation, and there is no way we can remedy it. Considering it's a significant part of the membership that participates, we feel it's incumbent on us to propose this solution."

The group made a similar request to the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet in 2002 before Schiller joined the committee, but the proposal was not supported.

The fencing committee also has contemplated the idea of conducting separate men's and women's championships.

Since fencing became a combined championship in 1990, no single-gender or mixed team has been among the top four in any year.

Before 1990, there were separate men's and women's championships, but several men's programs were eliminated, which prompted the combination approach. While that has strengthened the sport's standing overall, it has caused the recognition problem for single-gender squads.

"My women can win every bout and finish first in every category, and we would still only have 50 percent of the points needed to win," Schiller said. "If (the championships cabinet) is willing to extend awards to the top four men's and women's teams within the overall championship, we would be happy with that. If they won't do that, and they want to stick with the philosophy that this is a national collegiate championship, then our proposal would be to actually split the championship. But we don't want to damage the men's programs in any way."

In other words, Schiller said, the fencing community would not want to experience a return to the pre-1990 days of cuts in men's programs. In that regard, the fencing committee believes men's programs should be protected by NCAA legislation that exempts championships in Olympic sports from meeting minimum-sponsorship requirements, so a separate men's championship would not negatively affect sponsorship numbers.

In addition to those proposals, the committee already has implemented what it believes are significant improvements to the championships.

One of those changes is for regionals to officially become part of the championships, which will begin in 2006.

"We're a selection process now and there is no automatic qualification," Schiller said. "In the past, the committee has enforced a mandate that if you don't go to a regional you won't be selected for the finals."

Without that mandate, Schiller said, there was little incentive for institutions to participate in the regionals since selections weren't predicated on performance at those meets. But beginning in 2006, the regionals will be considered the first round of the championships, and fencers will qualify for the finals through regional participation rather than through a selection process.

The fencing committee also believes it has worked out the kinks in a formula used to help make selection decisions on individuals who appear in the NCAA championships. The formula is similar to the Rating Percentage Index used for men's and women's basketball.

Win-loss percentage and strength of schedule will be factors considered in the decision-making process.

"There will be no more arguing over the at-large selections," Schiller said. "We did this last year, but the formula had some flaws that hopefully we've fixed this year by adding the 'quality win' item. We're trying to encourage teams to fence as many strong teams as they can. Last year, teams were discouraged from fencing weaker teams because it decreased the strength of schedule."

Since fencing is a multi-division sport, Division III institutions that do not offer athletics financial aid are competing against scholarship athletes at larger institutions.

"There was a tendency from some Division I teams to not fence Division III teams because it didn't do the Division I team any good," Schiller said. "Now they are not penalized by the strength factor. Everybody is at the same level this way."