The Division I Men’s and Women’s Ice Hockey Committees both have fine-tuned their selection criteria to avoid penalizing teams for wins against certain opponents.

Currently, certain men’s and women’s teams might see their Rating Percentage Index — a factor in the selection criteria —decrease because of a win over an opponent with a weak schedule.

To modify the problem, the men’s committee will narrow the definition of "teams under consideration." Currently, one of the selection criteria is a team’s record against teams under consideration. The current definition of such a team is one that is at or above .500 in the final RPI. The proposed definition will be a team that finished in the top 25 in the final RPI. Also, the committee will consider that category only when both teams being compared have at least 10 games against other teams under consideration.

Also, the men’s committee will change the percentage weights of the different factors in the RPI. Currently, the percentages are 25 percent won-lost record, 50 percent strength of schedule of opponents and 25 percent strength of schedule of opponents’ opponents. The new percentages, calculated specifically to avoid penalizing teams for playing certain opponents, would be 25 percent won-lost record, 21 percent strength of schedule of opponents and 54 percent strength of schedule of opponents’ opponents. The formula allows 25 percent of the RPI to be based on won-lost record and 75 percent to be based on the strength-of-schedule factors.

The women’s committee is also changing the weights of the RPI factors. The new weights for the women will be 30 percent won-lost record, 24 percent strength of schedule of opponents and 46 percent strength of schedule of opponents’ opponents. The figures for the men and the women are different because of the number of participating teams — 58 in men’s ice hockey and 34 in women’s ice hockey — and the size of the bracket (16 teams for the men and eight for the women).

The men’s committee also decided to change its bonus-point system, awarding points for a win against a team ranked in the top 15 in the RPI only if the win occurs on the road at the opponent’s primary facility. Previously, home and neutral-site wins also earned bonus points.

Finally, the committee will propose a change in how the RPI is calculated with regular-season games to implement a policy already in place for conference tournament games. The policy is that if a team wins a game and the RPI points awarded for that game are less than the team’s season average of RPI points per game (which causes a team’s RPI to drop, despite the win), then that game is not calculated in the RPI. Last season, there were 108 regular-season games in Division I in which a team would have been better off (as far as the RPI is concerned) not playing the game. With the recommended changes, that number becomes zero.

In another area of discussion, the women’s committee indicated a commitment to increase awareness of and recruitment for women’s game officials. The current pool of officials is highly regarded, but committee members want the numbers to grow, particularly for female officials. The committee will form recruiting strategies to increase the group of officials available to work women’s games.

The men’s committee reaffirmed its commitment to require a neutral crew of officials during championship games — both for regional competition and at the Frozen Four. Specifically, if two teams in the same conference are playing in a regional competition or at the Frozen Four, the officiating crew must be from a different conference. If two teams from different conferences are playing, a crew from a third conference must work the game. The committee also voted to extend this provision to the video replay officials at the regionals and the Frozen Four.

Additionally, the committee reaffirmed its commitment to the goal of achieving more of a national consistency in the application of the playing rules and how the game is officiated.

Both committees also agreed to release their RPIs twice during the 2006-07 season — once in mid-January and once in mid-February.

The men’s committee also:

Fall 2007: Solicit bids for the West and Midwest regional sites for 2010 and 2011 (to be awarded in the summer of 2008).

Fall 2008: Solicit bids for the Men’s Frozen Four for 2013, 2014 and 2015 (to be awarded in the summer of 2009).

Fall 2009: Solicit bids for all four regional sites (West, Midwest, East and Northeast) for 2012 and 2013 (to be awarded in the summer of 2010).

The women’s committee also: