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Wrestling factors justify postseason allocation process
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Citing current circumstances in the sport, the Division III Championships Committee has approved the continuing use of historical data for allocating berths in the Division III Wrestling Championships.
Last summer, the committee asked the Division III Wrestling Committee to explore alternatives to using past performance in the championships as a basis for allocating the competition’s 160 berths. The request was consistent with efforts by the Championships Committee in other sports — notably cross country — to base allocations on current performance or sport sponsorship rather than historical performance.
After reviewing the Wrestling Committee’s response, the Championships Committee agreed that several factors — especially growing concern about schools dropping sponsorship of the sport — distinguish wrestling from other sports and currently justify the use of historical data.
Wrestling currently is sponsored by 96 Division III institutions — down from 107 sponsoring institutions 10 years ago.
Other factors include:
Committee members, who expressed interest in October in soliciting feedback on the question, decided it will work through the National Association of Division III Athletics Administrators and the Division III Commissioners Association to collect opinions on the issue.
The committee also considered a possible need to award automatic qualification in the future to single-sport conferences in emerging sports, and agreed it is philosophically comfortable with doing so.
January 16-18/Phoenix
Last summer, the committee asked the Division III Wrestling Committee to explore alternatives to using past performance in the championships as a basis for allocating the competition’s 160 berths. The request was consistent with efforts by the Championships Committee in other sports — notably cross country — to base allocations on current performance or sport sponsorship rather than historical performance.
After reviewing the Wrestling Committee’s response, the Championships Committee agreed that several factors — especially growing concern about schools dropping sponsorship of the sport — distinguish wrestling from other sports and currently justify the use of historical data.
Wrestling currently is sponsored by 96 Division III institutions — down from 107 sponsoring institutions 10 years ago.
Other factors include:
- The lack of a method for comparing individual performances in and across weight classes nationally.
- The possibility of harming the importance of and participation in conference championships — which serve as qualifiers to the NCAA championships in addition to two NCAA regional qualifiers — if the championships qualification procedure emphasizes NCAA regional competition. The committee noted that the conference championships that serve as regional qualifiers currently show high participation rates.
- The Championships Committee said it would continue to monitor conditions with the Wrestling Committee and explore avenues in the future for moving away from the use of historical data in allocating berths.
- Single-sport conferences
- The committee, which met January 16-18 in Phoenix, also renewed a discussion from its fall meeting about single-sport conferences’ eligibility for automatic qualification to championships.
- The committee is focusing on the question of whether current single-sport conferences should be allowed flexibility regarding automatic-qualification legislation, comparable to multisport conferences. Under current legislation, only single-sport conferences that have maintained the same core membership since February 1998 are eligible for automatic qualification.
Committee members, who expressed interest in October in soliciting feedback on the question, decided it will work through the National Association of Division III Athletics Administrators and the Division III Commissioners Association to collect opinions on the issue.
The committee also considered a possible need to award automatic qualification in the future to single-sport conferences in emerging sports, and agreed it is philosophically comfortable with doing so.
Other highlights
Division III Championships CommitteeJanuary 16-18/Phoenix
- Recommended to the Division III Management Council that it approve Emory University and the Gwinnett Sports Commission as co-hosts of the 2008 Division III Men’s Golf Championships at the Chateau Elan Resort in Braselton, Georgia.
- Agreed to solicit membership opinion through a survey about whether to combine the Division III Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships.
- Approved a recommendation to permit divers who achieve a qualifying score for the championships to submit a videotape or DVD of any performance in bona fide competition during the qualifying period, regardless of the score achieved in the performance. The recorded performance is the primary criterion for selection to the diving championships.
- Welcomed new committee members, including Management Council Chair Val Cushman and Vice Chair Kevin McHugh. Also joining the committee were Louise McCleary, director of athletics at Elms College; Ira Zeff, director of athletics at Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Emily Pankow of Luther College, representing the Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. The meeting also was the first under new chair Jeff Martinez, director of athletics at the University of Redlands.
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