The Division I Men's Soccer Committee discussed a regional-alignment plan at its February meeting aimed at addressing changes in conference membership that will become effective in the next two years.

Due to the changing membership of several conferences, including the Big East and Atlantic Coast Conferences and Conference USA, the men's soccer committee felt it necessary to review the current regional alignment it uses to divide the country for selection purposes. The committee's task was complicated by the fact that several of the newly aligned Division I conferences will cover a wide geographic range, which reduces the practicality of simple geographic alignment the committee has relied on in the past to define regions.

Because the purpose of regional alignment is to give regional advisory committee members the best opportunity to see teams in a given region so they can make educated recommendations about those teams for possible at-large selections to the tournament, the men's soccer committee developed a two-pronged proposal that incorporates conference composition and geography.

Under the proposed plan, the committee would consider all members of larger conferences in which the majority of a team's regular-season games are against conference opponents as members of the same region for selection purposes. That means, for instance, that a team such as Saint Louis University, which will be a member of the newly aligned Atlantic 10 Conference, may be considered as part of the Middle Atlantic region under the new plan rather than the Midwest, which is where it would be placed in a strictly geographic model.

For smaller conferences in which a majority of a team's games are nonconference opponents, those teams would be aligned on a geographic basis.

The thought is that by keeping teams from larger, more geographically diverse leagues in one region, the appropriate regional advisory committee members would have more opportunities to see them play. Using the Saint Louis example, the Middle Atlantic regional advisory committee members would be able to view the Billikens' road games at Atlantic 10 opponents' sites in the Middle Atlantic region.

The committee will compose a position statement on the issue and provide detailed information to the membership regarding the proposed regions. Based on feedback to the proposal, the committee may present the concept to the Division I Championships/
Competition Cabinet in either June or September. The earliest any new regional alignment would be implemented would be the 2006 season.

Additionally, the committee would change the names of the New England and New York regions to Northeast and North Atlantic, respectively.

Budget requests

The men's soccer committee also is recommending four proposals with budget implications to the cabinet. They are (in priority order):

* An increase in the current travel party size of 24, which is in response to a cabinet request. Committee members noted that the average squad size for regular-season competition is 28, but they did not reach a consensus on the increase to recommend for a postseason travel party size. The committee will finalize its recommendation during a conference call this spring and report to the cabinet in June.

* A recommendation to extend from the first round to the second a policy that prevents teams from the same conference from being paired. The committee noted that the 16 bye teams in the 48-team bracket do not play their first game until the second round, and they should be afforded the same opportunity to avoid conference matchups that the other 32 teams currently are provided.

* A recommendation to extend the use of the rule regarding flights for officials that currently exists only for quarterfinals and beyond to all rounds of the tournament. The current rule allows the committee to fly an official to an out-of-region game if there is not a qualified official within 300 miles of the site. The new proposal would allow the committee to fly an official from a region other than that of the two participating teams, only if the two competing teams are from different regions. If the two competing teams are from the same region, the committee would use a qualified official from that region (within the 300-mile limitation).

* The concept of using up to a maximum of two additional flights in the first round to avoid pairing teams in one region that have faced each other in previous first rounds. Because of the geographic isolation of some teams that are selected to the tournament on a regular basis, they tend to be paired consistently when the principle of geographic proximity is applied. The committee is seeking more flexibility to avoid the same pairings year after year to give the participating institutions a more varied postseason experience.

Those recommendations will be made to the cabinet in September and will apply to the 2006-08 biennial budget cycle.

Other highlights

Division I Men's Soccer Committee
February 15-18/San Diego

• Responded to a cabinet request to address policies regarding start times in cases in which games are delayed for inclement weather or other reasons. The committee voted that the latest that games originally scheduled for 7 p.m. local time would start or be resumed would be 10 p.m. Once past 10 p.m., the game would be postponed to the following day.

• Heard presentations from two groups bidding to host the 2006 and 2007 Men's College Cups. The committee will make its recommendation to the cabinet in June.

• Met with representatives of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) and reviewed the NSCAA's plan for a new administrative position that would be assigned solely as a liaison for Division I men's and women's soccer.

• Awarded automatic qualification to all 23 eligible conferences for the 2005 championship.

• Announced game times for the 2005 Men's College Cup at Cary, North Carolina, to be 4 and 6:30 p.m. on Friday, December 9, for the semifinals, with the final at 3 p.m. Sunday, December 11.

• Considered but reached no conclusion on the idea of moving the finals to a Thursday/Saturday night format from the current Friday/Sunday afternoon schedule. Proponents of a Thursday/Saturday format argue that it affords more rest for the finalists, and the Saturday night championship game may be a more attractive time slot for fans than the Sunday afternoon final. The Saturday conclusion also would allow teams to use Sunday as a travel day.