The NCAA Wrestling Committee has decided to eliminate the satellite broadcast of the officiating improvement program in 2006, and instead will hold one in-person session at the National Wrestling Coaches Association convention in September.

The committee made its decision at its April 10-13 meeting in Indianapolis.

Previously, the videos were sent to 28 separate satellite sites where officials could view it and ask questions about points of emphasis for the upcoming season.

The NWCA convention is September 19-21 in Pittsburgh, although the actual date of the session involving officiating improvement program has not been set.

A conference call offering a question-and-answer session with the wrestling committee chair, the secretary-rules editor and the national coordinator of officials also will be held before the season begins.

“After looking at the turnout at most of the sites, some had a lot of people in attendance, but some had no one showing up,” said committee Chair William Walker, deputy director of athletics at the U.S. Air Force Academy. “It’s not cost effective to do it this way. A lot more people were doing this via the Internet, and if we can get people to do this at the convention, that would be great.”

In another item, the wrestling committee forwarded recommendations concerning allocations for the 2007 Division I championships to the Championships/Competition Cabinet for review at its June meeting.

Since 1978, the wrestling committee has used a formula of past performance to determine allocations into the national tournament. Currently, the 330 championship participants are determined from a pool of nine conference tournaments and two NCAA-sponsored regionals. Qualifying tournaments advance no more than 65 percent of their total number of participants into the championship bracket, which prevents power conferences from occupying an even more overwhelming number of participants in the national tournament.

At the same time, conferences that aren’t regarded as traditionally strong receive only 11 automatic qualifiers — 10 individual weight class champions plus one wild card from any weight.

The allocations are based on performances from the previous five years. Some believe that perpetuates a cycle of the stronger conferences remaining strong, and the conferences that receive only 11 allocations never having a chance to qualify more wrestlers into the national tournament.

The recommendation going forward is to minimize the five-year history and see what the field would look like if a one- two- or three-year history were to be used.

Other highlights

NCAA Wrestling Committee

April 10-13/Indianapolis

• Encouraged coaches to fill out evaluations forms of officials during the regular season. (The forms are on the National Wrestling Coaches Association Web site.)
• Noted the need for an institution to host the 2007 NCAA East regional. Institutions interested in hosting the event should contact the NCAA national office by May 22.
• Reviewed the Middle Atlantic States Conference’s intent not to sponsor wrestling and noted that the Division III programs in that league will have to compete in a NCAA-sponsored regional next season.