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NCAA News Archive - 2007
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Committee agrees to implement regionalization plan
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By Gary T. Brown
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
The Division II Championships Committee at its September 10-11 meeting agreed to implement the regionalization model that was placed under moratorium at the 2007 NCAA Convention. The action aligns with a recommendation from the Division II Presidents and Management Councils after more than two years of study and discussion about the best way to align Division II regions for championship-selection purposes.
The Championships Committee acknowledged the efforts of a Presidents Council-appointed Regionalization Advisory Board that worked through several alternative models over the last year. That group concluded that the plan under moratorium best provides for consistent conference assignments and geographic borders for all Division II national championship selections.
The following principles guide the plan:
Among the adjustments is to allow schools in Texas and Colorado to count games between them as in-region contests. Only the Oklahoma Panhandle separates the two states, so the committee felt the additional flexibility was warranted, particularly since institutions in that region would face excessive travel demands for in-region contests otherwise.
Also, institutions in Montana may consider Nebraska and Colorado as contiguous states (and vice versa), since there are no Division II institutions currently in states contiguous to Montana’s southern border.
Other modifications include:
Due to the length of deliberation regarding alternative regionalization models, some sports had been scheduled to implement the plan in 2007-08 but were delayed. Those sports — basketball, field hockey, men’s lacrosse, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball — will use an interim scheduling plan for 2007-08.
“It has been a long, but very inclusive, process,” Championships Committee Chair and Mars Hill College Athletics Director Dave Riggins said of the regionalization discussions. “As we all know, it is challenging to make absolutely everyone happy in an effort of this magnitude that attempts to balance competitive equity in a geographically diverse membership like that in Division II. However, our membership, guided by leaders who are passionate about getting this right, dug deep to ensure everyone was included in the discussion. Many conferences put the more national Division II agenda ahead of their own in this initiative, which allowed us to reach what I believe is an outcome that is in Division II’s best interests.”
In other action, the Championships Committee endorsed a Division II Softball Committee recommendation to implement a super-regional format beginning with the 2009 championship. The proposal, which is subject to Management and Presidents Council approval, would change the current eight-team regional format to 16 four-team tournaments followed by eight best-of-three super regionals.
Proponents of the plan site its reduction of missed class time for student-athletes, since they would be competing in Friday-Sunday tournaments instead of the eight-team competitions that span Thursday through Monday. The proposal also reduces the reliance upon weather and expands hosting opportunities for communities that don’t have the facility capabilities (lighting, for example) or the lodging capacity to accommodate eight teams. Though the proposal has a budget impact of about $300,000, since it would add another weekend to the tournament and potentially pose more flights, the Championships Committee proposed reallocating budget surpluses from other championships to fund the softball format.
In another budget-related action, the Championships Committee backed a plan from the women’s golf committee to increase each of the four regional sites from six teams to nine and from three individuals to four. The increase accommodates sponsorship growth and more closely aligns the ratio of participants to sponsoring teams to that of the men’s game. If approved by the Management and Presidents Councils, the expansion would take effect for the 2009 championships.
Committee members also supported expanding the women’s lacrosse championship to a six-team field, three teams from each region. The proposal from the Division II Women’s Lacrosse Committee adds a first round to the tournament that would be played the second Saturday in May. The semifinals and final would be the following weekend.
Division II women’s lacrosse sponsorship has grown to 38 teams, which committee members say warrants the expanded postseason field.
To fund the expansions in women’s golf and women’s lacrosse, the Championships Committee recommended that the Division II Budget and Finance Committee reduce the recommended inflationary increases for the remaining years of the NCAA’s bundled-rights agreement with CBS and ESPN from 5 percent to 3.5 percent and use the difference to help fund championships initiatives.
In another budget-related action, the Championships Committee recommended using Division II championships reserves to fund the Division II National Championships Festivals in winter 2009 and fall 2010. The first three festivals had been line items in the Division II budget for 2004 (Orlando), 2006 (Pensacola) and 2008 (Houston), but additional allocations had not been made, pending results of the pilot events. Their resounding success prompted the Division II Presidents Council this summer to support the festivals as annual events. The presidents also agreed that it would be appropriate to use championships reserves to fund the festivals.
September 10-11/Indianapolis
The Championships Committee acknowledged the efforts of a Presidents Council-appointed Regionalization Advisory Board that worked through several alternative models over the last year. That group concluded that the plan under moratorium best provides for consistent conference assignments and geographic borders for all Division II national championship selections.
The following principles guide the plan:
- Regions will be determined by state boundaries.
- A state may reside in more than one region.
- Conferences will be assigned to specific regions for automatic qualification and postseason competition.
- Conference opponents will count as in-region contest regardless of geographic location.
- All opponents within an institution’s geographic region are in-region contests.
- Opponents residing within an institution’s state, regardless of conference affiliation, are in-region contests.
- All opponents, regardless of conference affiliation, in states contiguous to an institution’s state are in-region contests.
Among the adjustments is to allow schools in Texas and Colorado to count games between them as in-region contests. Only the Oklahoma Panhandle separates the two states, so the committee felt the additional flexibility was warranted, particularly since institutions in that region would face excessive travel demands for in-region contests otherwise.
Also, institutions in Montana may consider Nebraska and Colorado as contiguous states (and vice versa), since there are no Division II institutions currently in states contiguous to Montana’s southern border.
Other modifications include:
- The west region may consider North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado and New Mexico as contiguous states.
- Institutions located in Minnesota and Michigan may compete against each other and be considered as contiguous states (those contests count as in-region).
- Institutions and conferences with a common mission (such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities) may consider interconference contests or independent contests against schools with similar missions as in-region, regardless of their geographic location or regional assignment.
Due to the length of deliberation regarding alternative regionalization models, some sports had been scheduled to implement the plan in 2007-08 but were delayed. Those sports — basketball, field hockey, men’s lacrosse, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball — will use an interim scheduling plan for 2007-08.
“It has been a long, but very inclusive, process,” Championships Committee Chair and Mars Hill College Athletics Director Dave Riggins said of the regionalization discussions. “As we all know, it is challenging to make absolutely everyone happy in an effort of this magnitude that attempts to balance competitive equity in a geographically diverse membership like that in Division II. However, our membership, guided by leaders who are passionate about getting this right, dug deep to ensure everyone was included in the discussion. Many conferences put the more national Division II agenda ahead of their own in this initiative, which allowed us to reach what I believe is an outcome that is in Division II’s best interests.”
In other action, the Championships Committee endorsed a Division II Softball Committee recommendation to implement a super-regional format beginning with the 2009 championship. The proposal, which is subject to Management and Presidents Council approval, would change the current eight-team regional format to 16 four-team tournaments followed by eight best-of-three super regionals.
Proponents of the plan site its reduction of missed class time for student-athletes, since they would be competing in Friday-Sunday tournaments instead of the eight-team competitions that span Thursday through Monday. The proposal also reduces the reliance upon weather and expands hosting opportunities for communities that don’t have the facility capabilities (lighting, for example) or the lodging capacity to accommodate eight teams. Though the proposal has a budget impact of about $300,000, since it would add another weekend to the tournament and potentially pose more flights, the Championships Committee proposed reallocating budget surpluses from other championships to fund the softball format.
In another budget-related action, the Championships Committee backed a plan from the women’s golf committee to increase each of the four regional sites from six teams to nine and from three individuals to four. The increase accommodates sponsorship growth and more closely aligns the ratio of participants to sponsoring teams to that of the men’s game. If approved by the Management and Presidents Councils, the expansion would take effect for the 2009 championships.
Committee members also supported expanding the women’s lacrosse championship to a six-team field, three teams from each region. The proposal from the Division II Women’s Lacrosse Committee adds a first round to the tournament that would be played the second Saturday in May. The semifinals and final would be the following weekend.
Division II women’s lacrosse sponsorship has grown to 38 teams, which committee members say warrants the expanded postseason field.
To fund the expansions in women’s golf and women’s lacrosse, the Championships Committee recommended that the Division II Budget and Finance Committee reduce the recommended inflationary increases for the remaining years of the NCAA’s bundled-rights agreement with CBS and ESPN from 5 percent to 3.5 percent and use the difference to help fund championships initiatives.
In another budget-related action, the Championships Committee recommended using Division II championships reserves to fund the Division II National Championships Festivals in winter 2009 and fall 2010. The first three festivals had been line items in the Division II budget for 2004 (Orlando), 2006 (Pensacola) and 2008 (Houston), but additional allocations had not been made, pending results of the pilot events. Their resounding success prompted the Division II Presidents Council this summer to support the festivals as annual events. The presidents also agreed that it would be appropriate to use championships reserves to fund the festivals.
Other highlights
Division II Championships CommitteeSeptember 10-11/Indianapolis
- Did not support requests from three sport committees to fund expanded squad sizes, preferring instead to consider items such as squad-size adjustments and per diem increases as part of a broader review of possible championships enhancements.
- Agreed to ask Division II conference commissioners to consider concluding league championships no later than the day before national championship selections, or at least start the championship final no later than 1 p.m. local time the day of selections.
- Reviewed a legislative proposal from the Division II Softball Committee that would count each game toward a maximum of 56 contests in the championship segment, regardless of whether the team played multiple games in a given day. The proposal also provides for eight games in the nonchampionship segment. Championships Committee members agreed to ask the softball committee to consider an alternative that would provide for one contest number (for example, 60) that would apply for the entire playing and practice season, rather than split contests between the championship and nonchampionship segments.
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