The Divisions I, II and III Women's Rowing Committees agreed during their meetings last month to implement an online reporting system that will reflect regular-season results.

Currently in the developmental stage, the system will be operational in time for the coming academic year and will be effective in all three divisions. The committees plan to use the system to assist in the selection of teams to championship competition. Institutions sponsoring rowing can expect details on the new system in the near future.

In addition to conducting a joint meeting, the three committees also held separate sessions. The Division I committee discussed ways to continue to grow the sport, including possible bracket expansion. In light of the sport's growth on individual campuses as well as the competitiveness of the championship, especially over the past two years, the committee feels the division may be ready to approach the Championships/
Competition Cabinet with the possibility of expanding the bracket. Presently, 16 teams are invited to the Division I championship -- 12 full teams and four at-large selections of Eights.

Division I committee members also reviewed and denied a request from the Atlantic 10 Conference to consider instituting an automatic-qualification structure. Committee members felt it was more appropriate to secure bracket expansion before seeking AQ.

In other actions, the Division I committee announced championship sites for the next two years. In 2006, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey at New Brunswick, and the Princeton International Regatta Association will host the final at Mercer Lake in West Windsor, New Jersey. In 2007, the championship will move to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will host. For the past two years, the championship has been in Sacramento, California.

Division II

The Division II committee confirmed plans to survey schools sponsoring the sport in Division II about a possible change in format for the Eights in championship competition. The move is precipitated in part by a desire to avoid having teams from the same region race against each other in the opening heats of the championship.

As part of the survey that will be distributed in the coming months, the membership will be presented with three options. In addition to the current method of slotting each of the three seeded teams in three different heats and randomly assigning the other three boats to one of the heats, another option will propose that, when possible, no teams from the same regions compete against each other in the opening heats. A third alternative calls for two heats featuring three boats in the opening round of competition.

Like its Division I counterpart, the Division II committee also looked at ways to expand the sport. The group agreed to encourage Division II schools sponsoring rowing as a club sport to elevate their teams to varsity status. In addition, the group agreed to forward two recommendations to the Championships Committee, one of which focuses on increasing the size of the travel party from 19 to 21. A second recommendation requests that individual boats that place second in the Fours and Eights competition will receive a trophy or other championship token. Presently, the overall champion and the first-place crews in the Fours and Eights contests receive a championships memento.

Division III

In its meeting, the Division III committee discussed working with the Division III Management Council on establishing an exception to the 19-week playing and practice limitation in the nontraditional season for novice rowers. While the 19-week rule is designed to decrease the pressures that practice and competition place on student-athletes, the committee has found that the regulation is negatively affecting the dev- elopment of novice rowers.

With high-school rowing programs numbering fewer than 100, 90 percent of the novice rowers who participate on Division III teams have no previous rowing experience. A typical varsity crew may practice six times a week for six weeks during the nontraditional season; however, the committee believes that training at that same intensity and within that same time frame is too difficult for novice rowers to manage. The exception would allow only student-athletes who have been designated as novice rowers to adopt a practice schedule that includes fewer days a week but incorporates a longer span of weeks. The Management Council is expected to entertain the request at its July meeting.

In other actions, the committee agreed to change its scoring system so that the team with the most points wins the competition. Since the Division III championship was established in 2002, teams have been assigned points on descending scale of 12 to 1, and the team with the lowest point total has been declared the champion. Beginning with the 2006 championship, the scoring will run from 1 to 12 points. The move aligns the division with the other two in scoring.