The Division III Management Council resolved a relatively lengthy struggle to redefine in-region competition for championships selection purposes during its April 10-11 meeting when it approved a recommendation to include games played between teams in a membership region.

With its action, the Council reversed an earlier decision to permit designation of games played outside a sport-specific geographical region during a defined institutional break as in-region contests.

The Council approved a recommendation from the Division III Championships Committee to permit institutions to designate games played between teams in a region defined in Constitution Article 4.12 in the Division III Manual as in-region contests.

As a result, games between teams in the nine states (and the District of Columbia) of Region 1 will count as in-region games, as will games between teams in the two states (New York and Pennsylvania) of Region 2, the 15 states (and Puerto Rico) of Region 3, and the 24 states of Region 4.

Games between teams in a defined sport-specific region, as well as games played against institutions within a 200-mile radius of a campus, also still will count as in-region games — thus combining with the membership-region component to provide more flexibility in regional scheduling.

The action was taken with the realization that some teams already may be scheduling games under the previously approved approach, which would have permitted teams from two different sport regions to play each other during a defined institutional break — such as a semester or spring break — and count the game as in-region competition.

However, the Council agreed with the Championships Committee’s assessment that there are too many logistical hurdles — specifically, the need for teams to notify opponents of designation of a game as an in-region contest and the likely difficulty of obtaining both teams’ consent for that designation — to proceed with that plan.

The newly adopted in-region definition is effective August 1, 2006.

The Council also approved the Championships Committee’s recommendation to add “opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage” to selection criteria for use by sports committees, replacing “opponents’ opponents’ record” beginning in 2007-08.