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    DII women's basketball panel reviews regional format options

    May 26, 2010 9:55:30 AM

    By Greg Johnson
    The NCAA News

     

    The Division II Women's Basketball Committee recently reviewed a Division II pilot initiative that allows an advisory panel to select the format under which regional play in the championship is conducted.

    Division II last year agreed to allow regional "format advisory groups" − composed of the conference commissioners in a given region, at least one member of the Championships Committee, the region's national sport committee representative and several members of the regional advisory committee − to choose from among three options, with consideration of cost savings where appropriate:

    Seven of the eight regions stayed with the current format. The Atlantic region made its recommendation to go to the two-site option based on the rural locations of many of the institutions in the region.

    Thus, the Atlantic regional conducted two four-team sites for the first round and then played the second and third rounds at the site of the highest remaining seed.

    "Each region has its own geographical differences," said Ann Walker, the committee chair and the associate athletics director at Nova Southeastern. "Some of the regions are spread out and others are much closer in proximity. Due to the differences, each region should have the luxury of determining how they want to run that portion of the championship."

    A contingency plan remains in place, though, should any region face a situation in which all seven teams would have to fly to the host site. In that case, the Division II Women's Basketball Committee would have the authority to designate an alternative format.

    Regions will continue to be able to choose their preferred option for regional play this coming season (they must declare a format before the season begins).

    In other items on the agenda, the group plans to speak with the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Committee about developing a policy concerning weather that may affect travel.

    The women's committee had to deal with the issue this past season when Findlay was unable to arrive on the designated date for regional competition at Michigan Tech. Fog shut down Chicago's O'Hare Airport, which delayed flight plans for a day.

    The committee decided to play the other three first-round regional games March 12 as scheduled and then play the Findlay/Wisconsin-Parkside game on March 13. The second- and third-round games were conducted March 14 and 16.

    While that was the first time the committee had to delay a regional because of weather, committee members reasoned that it could happen again, which would support the need for having a policy in place.