The Division III Men's and Women's Golf Committees are upgrading their postseason selection transmissions from manual to automatic. At least, most people think it's an upgrade.

Beginning in 2007, more than half the teams hitting the fairways at the Division III Men's and Women's Golf Championships will be doing so through automatic qualification, the first time the committees will have strayed from the cartpath of choosing participants through tournament results, stroke average and other criteria. The impetus for the change came from the Division III Championships Committee, which felt it was time for selected individual/team sports to adhere to the same philosophy Division III had employed for team sports: that conferences sponsoring the sport should have at least a minimum level of access.

The good news is that both golf championship fields will enjoy significant expansion -- the men's tournament from 23 to 35 teams and the women's from 10 to 18. The bad news -- or at least the uncertain news -- is that under the AQ scenario, some people think it will be possible for a championship contender to be left waiting to play through from home.

Most people close to the decision think that possibility is unlikely, given the bracket growth. The Division III membership didn't seem too concerned, either, passing the measure at the 2005 Convention by a 311-60-5 landslide. But some people in the golf community, even a few golf committee members, think the change is a bogey.

"As a coach I was totally against it," said Southwestern University (Texas) golf coach Dan Ruyle, who chairs the Division III men's committee. And Ruyle said many of his peers shared his anxiety. "My biggest problem is that right now, Division III men's golf has a great championship. It has access -- we give three spots to each region, and we have at-large spots for good teams that deserve to be there, and there are enough teams that you're never going to leave one out that has a chance to win the title. There's nothing wrong with it and I didn't see a reason to change."

Ruyle's counterpart on the women's side, Wellesley College Athletics Director Louise O'Neal, didn't see a reason to change, either.

"Some of our committee members believed that the timing was not particularly good, and some were not convinced that it should be done at all," she said.

But both chairs and their committees are playing the ball where it lies. Ruyle at least likes the idea of an expanded field, and as O'Neal acknowledged, "The Championships Committee isn't reconsidering the idea, so we might as well move on."

How the committees are doing that varies. Ruyle's group may have the biggest hazard to clear: an apparent dearth of facilities that can accommodate what will become the largest championship field in collegiate golf -- five teams more than the current Division I men's bracket. To deal with that, the men's committee is leaning toward conducting future events at 36-hole courses, or at adjacent 18-hole facilities. That reduces the choices considerably.

"Without going to a regional format, we're going to have to still host at one site but at a place that has two golf courses," Ruyle said. He said the committee may put half the field on one course and the other half on another for the first day and then flip-flop on the second. That would add a day to the event, not for actual playing dates (the tournament would still be four rounds), but for an additional practice round. Ruyle noted that commandeering a facility for six days may be a red light to a lot of course owners dependent upon greens fees.

The increased field also will result in a 36-hole cut, Ruyle said. Currently, only the Division I men's tournament pares its field that way, and even that practice has been somewhat contentious -- Division I coaches have disagreed about whether the cut should be made after 36 or 54 holes of play.

The challenges on the women's side are far more basic. Because their championship is only five years old, the women's committee members aren't even sure which conferences really do meet the criteria for AQ.

"Our main question," O'Neal said, "is whether there really are that many conferences organized with enough members who are playing the minimum number of rounds to be considered as a conference qualified for an automatic berth. Our committee just thought that a blanket policy was a bit premature for golf, given the stage of development in the women's championship."

Now, though, committee members have been charged with researching conferences in their region to see if they're up to par. They'll know more when they hold their annual meeting in July. At that point, the women's committee can begin planning in earnest for the AQ factor.

Fitting the philosophy

At least one person who thinks everything is on course is Championships Committee Chair John Cochrane, commissioner of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. He said AQ was controversial with sports committees in team sports, too, until people had enough time to realize the benefits. As those committees did, Cochrane said he has seen cooperation from the tennis and golf committees as well.

"Any time something is proposed that involves a fairly dramatic change, there will be initial resistance," Cochrane said. "As the communication developed, though, both with the coaches and with the respective committees -- and the membership understood the significance of the bracket expansion -- the committees became much more accepting of the concept than they were initially."

Cochrane said his committee noted that tennis and golf were two sports that had historically been dominated by certain "power" conferences going three, four and five deep into the field at the expense of a significant percentage of conferences sponsoring the sport that weren't being represented at all.

Indeed, in men's golf, leagues such as USA South, the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regularly place multiple entries into the championship field. Whether it has been at the expense of other deserving teams recently is not clear, but Cochrane said the principle itself didn't set well with the Championships Committee.

"In our view," he said, "it just didn't fit with the philosophy of access in Division III. That might have been the impetus initially in pursuing it, and we also saw the opportunity to expand the brackets. We think we're accommodating both ends -- those conferences that have traditionally been strong and those that have been denied access."

Effect on conference championships

Another potential challenge that the shift to AQ has caused is increased pressure on conferences to conduct more legitimate league championship tournaments, especially if that's the route the winner takes to the national field. Currently, since not much is riding on a conference tournament outcome, some leagues don't even hold conference championships, and if they do, it might be only a 36-hole event.

With AQ, though, most people aren't keen on such an informal event having that formal of a reward. Increasing a conference tournament to 54 holes, however, means more missed class time for student-athletes and greater financial burden upon course owners who would have to keep paying patrons away for an additional day.

"Currently, our conference championship is 36 holes over two days," said Ruyle. "Is that the right way to determine who goes to a national championship? In the past, conference tournaments didn't mean that much, but now they will be the way you get to the national tournament. You don't want a fluke team winning that berth (just because the tournament is just 36 holes instead of 54 or 72)."

But, Ruyle said, try telling athletics directors and commissioners that a longer and perhaps more expensive tournament is necessary to more accurately determine the conference representative, and they may say they don't want to devote those kinds of additional resources just for golf.

But Brad Bankston, commissioner of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, said he's already had discussions with league golf coaches about enhancing the ODAC postseason tournament.

"Our stance as a league is that AQ does enhance conference competition," said Bankston, who also is a member of the men's golf committee. "I foresee this placing the emphasis on conference championships just as it has done with other team sports, which I believe is a good thing, not bad."

Bankston said the arguments against AQ are the same that came from field hockey, soccer and football when the Championships Committee -- of which he was a member at the time -- implemented the philosophy for team sports: that it won't necessarily ensure that all the top teams make the field. But Bankston believes Division III needs to balance that competitive concern with the access philosophy and be true to the principles the membership has set forth.

"You need to make the best of the process you have in front of you," he said. "I'm sold on the AQ principle, and I'm comfortable with the fact that we're doing it. It's not going to have such a significant impact that people won't be able to cope."

Committed to the concept

The competitive/access balancing act can be tough on committee members who want to ensure the best championship experience possible for student-athletes. It may depend on whether that experience is defined by the caliber of competition, or whether just being there is experience enough. Coaches tend to be attracted to the former, while administrators appreciate the latter.

"More teams getting in is a good thing if you go with the Division III philosophy. But it also means you're going to have some questionable teams at the championship, which in my opinion is not the way a championship should be run," Ruyle said. "If you're a team with a chance to win the team title and you're thinking this is the biggest and best golf tournament you'll play, and then you're paired with a team you beat by 50 shots in the first round -- that's probably not the best thing in the world.

"But this is Division III and the AQ principle does match the philosophy."

Darla Kirby, women's golf coach at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, a perennial contender for the team title, said she doesn't think the increased access will sully the field.

"The more participants, whether they be teams or individuals, who can experience the championship, even if just once in their career -- it's well worth it," she said. "We've been fortunate to experience the event several times and we come back with a different experience each year. The kids will live with that forever, and that's what college life is. If we can make sure they have a good experience there, it doesn't matter if they're not in contention at the end of the tournament -- they will have had a worthwhile experience just by having been there."

O'Neal said that was the committee's job -- to make the experience worthwhile under whatever parameters exist. "We'll make the AQ work if that's what we're supposed to do," she said. "This committee is hard-working and committed enough to make sure we don't lose the excitement we have now just because we're going with AQ in the future."

That's the right answer, according to Cochrane.

"The Championships Committee is committed to applying this philosophy whenever it is practical to do so," he said. "The membership has been clear that equitable access to championships is a priority. That access-versus-excellence balance has been understood in team sports for years -- the championship field is not necessarily the best group of teams, but it ensures access first, and then the at-large pool does its best to ensure that those next best teams are getting in.

"The committee is committed to that concept."

Conferences with multiple bids (2000-04)

Men's 2000 (23 teams)

Dixie Intercollegiate Athletic -- Greensboro, Methodist, Christopher Newport

Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic -- Gustavus Adolphus, St, John's (Minnesota)

University Athletic Association* -- Emory, Rochester

Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic -- Olivet, Hope

North Coast Athletic -- Ohio Wesleyan, Allegheny

Men's 2001 (23 teams)

Dixie Intercollegiate Athletic -- Greensboro, Methodist, Averett

Ohio Athletic -- Otterbein, Muskingum

Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic -- Gustavus Adolphus, St, John's (Minnesota)

Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic -- Cal Lutheran, Redlands, La Verne

North Coast Athletic -- Ohio Wesleyan, Allegheny

Men's 2002 (23 teams)

Dixie Intercollegiate Athletic -- Greensboro, Methodist, Averett

Ohio Athletic -- Otterbein, Muskingum

Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic -- Gustavus Adolphus, St, John's (Minnesota)

Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic -- Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Redlands, La Verne

North Coast Athletic -- Ohio Wesleyan, Allegheny

Men's 2003 (23 teams)

Dixie Intercollegiate Athletic -- Greensboro, Methodist, Averett

Liberty -- Skidmore, St. Lawrence

Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic -- Gustavus Adolphus, St, John's (Minnesota)

North Coast Athletic -- Denison, Allegheny, Ohio Wesleyan

Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic -- Redlands, La Verne

Southern Collegiate Athletic -- Trinity (Texas), Oglethorpe

Men's 2004 (23 teams)

USA South -- Greensboro, Methodist

Liberty -- Skidmore, St. Lawrence

Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic -- Gustavus Adolphus, St, John's (Minnesota)

North Coast Athletic -- Denison, Allegheny, Ohio Wesleyan

Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic -- Cal Lutheran, Redlands, La Verne

University Athletic Association* -- Rochester, New York U., Emory

*Would not qualify for automatic qualification because it does not meet the minimum number of schools sponsoring the sport.

Women's 2000 (10 teams)

Southern Collegiate Athletic -- Rhodes, Southwestern (Texas)

Women's 2001 (10 teams)

American Southwest -- Hardin-Simmons, Mary Hardin-Baylor

Women's 2002 (10 teams)

American Southwest -- Mary Hardin-Baylor, McMurry

Southern Collegiate Athletic -- DePauw, Rhodes

Women's 2003 (10 teams)

American Southwest -- Mary Hardin-Baylor, McMurry

Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic -- Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Wisconsin-Eau Claire

Women's 2004 (10 teams)

American Southwest -- Mary Hardin-Baylor, Hardin-Simmons

Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic -- Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Wisconsin-Eau Claire