The Division I Men’s and Women’s Soccer Committees are in the early stages of discussing what to do about the length of their championship seasons.

Debate during the committees’ recent annual meetings was prompted in part by a date formula change that calls for both the Men’s and Women’s College Cups to be on the same weekend beginning in 2006. That’s a shift from previous years in which the women’s finals have been held on the first weekend of December and the men’s on the second. However, season start dates for each gender had been the same, which resulted in an additional week for the men’s championship segment.

Two years ago, the Championships/Competition Cabinet, acting on a recommendation from the men’s soccer committee, agreed that beginning in 2006, the College Cups would be on the same weekend and that a common start date would be imposed (11 weeks before the start of the tournament). That means the 2006 season won’t start for either gender until after Labor Day.

Part of the soccer committees’ reasoning was that a shared championships weekend might facilitate holding the College Cups at a common site, but those plans did not materialize even though the committees tried to make it happen.

Now that it appears that the men and women will not be sharing a common site for the College Cups, the men’s committee prefers that its finals be on the second weekend in December beginning in 2007. The committee also wants to return to its previous earlier start date.

Thus, while it’s not an official proposal yet, the men’s committee, along with the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is testing the waters for a permanent 12-week championship segment for men’s and women’s soccer. The additional week would essentially be taken from the spring segment so as not to compromise the overall playing and practice season. Committee members believe they have a compelling rationale, since soccer and field hockey currently have the shortest championship segments of any NCAA sport.

Pat Britz, who manages Division I programming for the NSCAA, said, “Teams are trying to cram 20 games into a 10-week season (with the 11th week being the conference tournament). That’s a health and safety and student-athlete well-being issue.”

Men’s soccer committee Chair Terry Gawlick said her group is in the process of soliciting feedback on the 12-week idea. Gawlick, an assistant athletics director at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said there was little support — from either the men’s or women’s committees — for a shared championship weekend with competition at separate sites.

Others are concerned that a common championship date formula would compromise institutions with teams in both the men’s and women’s brackets. In such cases, those schools may not be able to host preliminary-round games in each gender.

Britz said any concern about the 12-week concept likely would be financial, since the change could, in certain years, move the start of preseason practice into early August and cause institutions to foot additional bills for lodging and meals. Britz said that in most cases, though, the student-athletes already are on campus, either because of summer school or camps.

Depending on the feedback, the soccer committees may submit a formal proposal to the cabinet in June, which would be in time for the proposal to be placed in the 2006-07 legislative cycle.

The other notable issue the men’s and women’s soccer committees discussed at their meetings was whether to place microphones on the referees during the finals. ESPN officials proposed the idea, which the network already has used in baseball and lacrosse. They are couching it as an opportunity for soccer fans to learn more about the rules of the game by hearing the referee explain decisions to coaches and players.

“When an official sanctions a player or makes a controversial call, you usually don’t get to hear what the referee tells the player and coaches,” Gawlick said.

Both the men’s and women’s committees approved the idea for the 2006 finals. Members said the practice might actually have a side benefit of cleaning up language on the field as well.

In other action, the committees:

• Agreed to release the Rating Percentage Index twice during future seasons, once in mid-season and again just before conference tournaments.
• Determined that because of recent conference realignments, men’s regional advisory committee members would be assigned to follow conferences throughout the season as much as possible.
• Named Associate Athletics Director at Northwestern University Noreen Morris as chair of the men’s committee beginning September 1.