The Division III Baseball Committee is moving ahead with plans to have predetermined sites for all eight regionals in the 2007 championship.

Institutions wanting to serve as hosts can begin making bids in October. Committee members will recommend sites before the Division III Championship Committee meets in January.

The move represents a completion in the progression for predetermined sites. The championship began with three predetermined sites in 2004 and increased that total to five in 2005 and 2006.

But last year the field increased from 42 teams to 53, which required five seven-team regionals and three six-team regionals.

"With that many teams, we need to have lights at the regional sites," said outgoing committee Chair John Casey. "We also have been compressed by the end of conference play to the start of the regionals. Predetermined sites allow for more efficient planning.

"It’s much better than the days when no one knew where they were going until three days before the regional."

Casey, the coach at Tufts University, said predetermined sites also enhance the host’s ability to make the experience a quality one for the student-athletes.

"We can really prepare by blocking off hotel rooms instead of it being a mad rush at the end," Casey said. "Also, if we don’t have lights, the regionals will be stretched over longer periods . If we get rain, then darkness becomes a factor. Our goal is to settle it all on the field."

Committee members have been pleased with Fox Cities Stadium, which was the host of the 2006 championship finals. The facility began hosting the event in 2000 and will serve again in that capacity in 2007.

In another action, the committee recommended to the Division III Championships Committee that John McCloskey, the athletics director at Alvernia College, become the new chair.