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DII Championships Committee OKs modifications to men’s basketball selection criteria

By David Pickle
NCAA.org

 Beginning next season, the selection process for the Division II Men’s Basketball Championship will be modified to include both primary and tiebreaker criteria in rank priority order.

The decision, approved at the summer meeting of the Division II Championships Committee, is in response to the concerns of coaches, who wanted home losses to teams with records below .500 to be more costly. The coaches also wanted a “performance indicator” that will provide an additional qualitative tool for committee members making selections.

 Effective with the 2011-12 season, the following criteria will be in place (in the following order):

Primary criteria

1. Overall Division II won-lost results.

2. Opponents’ average winning percentage.

3. Opponents’ opponents’ average winning percentage.

4. Head-to-head competition.

5. Results versus common opponents.

6. Results versus Division II ranked teams (all regions – once ranked, always ranked).

7. Performance indicator.

Tiebreaker criteria

1. Rating Percentage Index in-region data.

2. Record in last 10 games.

The “performance indicator” will provide point values (Division II games only) ranging from 23 for road wins against a team with a .750 record to 0 for a home loss against a team with less than a .250 winning percentage. The totals will change during the year along with the records of the opponents. Ultimately, all the possible points are totaled and then divided by the number of games to provide the number that will be used for comparison.

Performance indicator

23 − Win on road against a .750 or above team

22 − Win neutral-site game against a .750 or above team

21 − Win at home against a .750 or above team

20 − Win on road against a .500-.749 team

19 − Win neutral site game against a .500-.749 team

18 − Win at home against a .500-.749 team

17 − Win on road against a .250- .499 team

16 − Win neutral site game against a .250-.499 team

15 − Win at home against a .250-.499 team

14 − Win on road against a .000-.249 team

13 − Win neutral site game against a .000-.249 team

12 − Win at home against a .000-.249 team

11 − Road loss to .750 or above team

10 − Neutral site loss to a .750 or above team

9 − Home loss to a .750 or above team

8 − Road loss to a .500-.749 team

7 − Neutral site loss to a .500-.749 team

6 − Home loss to a .500-.749 team

5 − Road loss to a .250-.499 team

4 − Neutral site loss to a .250-.499 team

3 − Home loss to a .250-.499 team

2 − Road loss to a .000-.250 team

1 − Neutral site loss to a .000-.250 team

0 − Home loss to a .000-.250 team

The Championships Committee also approved the Men’s Basketball Committee’s recommendation to eliminate in-region Division II won-lost results as a primary criterion since so few out-of-region games are played. The in-region information will be factored into the Rating Percentage Index, which would be regarded as the No. 1 tiebreaker.

The committee defeated a second proposal from the Men’s Basketball Committee that would have provided the opportunity to adjust the seeding in regional tournaments in cases where conference opponents would be playing each other for a fourth time (the previous three would be two regular-season games, plus a game in the conference tournament). The proposal was intended to enhance the championship experience for teams in such positions, but the Championships Committee concluded that the rule would be difficult to apply consistently and that it could be regarded as affecting the competition  not only for the affected game but perhaps also for subsequent contests.

In other action at its June 1-2 meeting, the Championships Committee:

• Approved the recommendation of the Division II Football Committee to revise Super Regionals Three and Four, effective with the 2012 championship. Beginning then, Super Regional Three will be composed of the Central and West Regions (44 teams, including the Great American Conference, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference region independents, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference). Super Regional Four will be composed of the Midwest and South Central Regions (41 teams, including the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, the Great Lakes Valley Conference, the Lone Star Conference and the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference). The purpose of the change is to make the number of teams competing within each region more equal with the advent of the new Great American Conference.
• Approved several recommendations from the Division II Women’s Volleyball Committee: (1) to conduct that championship at a predetermined site beginning in 2012; (2) to expand the bench size for championship competition to accommodate 25 players, effective for the 2011-12 season (the number of players in uniform would remain at 15 while the travel party size would continue to be 20); and (3) to extend the playing season for women’s volleyball one week, effective in 2012-13, by moving the date of selections one week later. Selections would take place the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and regional competition would take place the Thursday through Saturday or Friday through Sunday the week after Thanksgiving. The finals would take place the week after regional competition, on Thursday through Saturday.  The Championships Committee defeated a recommendation that would have increased the preseason limit of six hours of activity (physical and non-physical) be to seven hours.
• Approved a recommendation from the Division II Women’s Basketball Committee to remove non-Division II contests from the primary selection criteria.
• Noted that after seeing the data and considering its use, most sports committees indicated they would prefer not to use Rating Percentage Indexes for selection purposes. Men’s basketball will use the RPI as a tie breaker, and the Championships Committee will follow up with committees that appeared ambivalent about the approach.
• Elected Erin Lind, associated commissioner of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference as the new chair, replacing Bill Fusco of Sonoma State.