The NCAA Women’s Bowling Committee finalized plans to add an online certification program to test officials preparing for the 2008-09 season. Though participation in the testing program is voluntary, officials certified through the program could receive increased consideration for assignment at the national championship.

The exam, which is based on the NCAA Women’s Bowling Rules book, will be distributed through tournament directors of regular-season invitationals. Once tournament directors submit the required event certification materials to the NCAA, a link to the test will be forwarded to them, which can then be sent to officials who may be interested in becoming certified.

Brian Reese, NCAA Women’s Bowling Committee chair and director of sport operations at Vanderbilt, said the test will add consistency to the game while also placing more emphasis on the importance of the tournament official.

“Like all other sports, we’re trying to keep things consistent from one venue to the other. With tournament officials, at least they understand the rules, they’ve reviewed the rule book and all the other things related to college bowling,” he said. “We will use the test as an educational tool, as well. If a tournament official is kind of lax in one area, he or she can strengthen that area by going back and rereading the rule book.”

Viewed by the committee as a natural step in the evolution of the sport, the testing program comes into play as women’s bowling is experiencing steady sponsorship growth (a total of 52 teams in 2007-08) and increased interest. Not only has bowling added two to three programs each year since it became an NCAA championship sport in 2004, Reese said the committee frequently fields inquiries from schools considering establishing a bowling team.

“I probably get one to two calls a month from other institutions in Divisions I, II and III about adding bowling and about budgets, recruiting and related items. There’s more interest in bowling each year, and the number of schools that are inquiring about bowling and giving it a serious thought has greatly increased.”

Although the committee is comfortable with the current eight-team field for the championship tournament and is confident that the top teams are being identified through the selection process, Reese said the group is talking about bracket expansion as the number of programs increase.

“We’re just trying to get a read on the number of programs we’d need before we can start adding teams to the championship,” he said. “We think that’s a few years down the road. But the way we keep adding teams, it will be interesting to see what the number might be.”