Automatic qualification's arrival in the National Collegiate Women's Lacrosse Championship is either the greatest thing since the modern stick or the worst thing, well, since AQ was proposed in the first place.

Depends whom you ask.

No Ouija board is necessary to know which schools fall where. Schools not used to appearing in the championship love it. Perennial powers have to live with it. But neither should notice any difference until 2001.

The 12-team bracket will have two spots taken by automatic qualification this year because of a Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet directive. One goes to the Ivy Group, the other to the Colonial Athletic Association.

If you re-selected last year's field with this year's criteria, it would be virtually identical. Both conferences advanced their champion as well as one other member in 1999. With the two automatic-qualification spots reserved for 2000, there is plenty of room for those bridesmaids to make the field again. But that won't be as likely the next two years and thereafter as the number of AQs increases. For the 2001 season, eight conferences currently are eligible for AQ consideration. The conferences that are eventually selected will be determined by a rating-percentage index (RPI). The number of conferences receiving AQ will increase next year and the following year until half of the total bracket selected will be through automatic qualification.

"The best teams in those conferences might lose in their conference tournament this year or next and get into the NCAA anyway," said Diane Aikens, coach at Loyola College (Maryland), a women's lacrosse-only member of the CAA. "That might not happen in the future."

Denise Wescott, coach at the University of Delaware and president of the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association, said that many coaches have lobbied for AQ.

"Over the past few years, a lot of coaches have pushed for it," she said. "We know there will be a few burps and hiccups along the way, but as it plays out, the teams that are going to nationals will get stronger because of it, and the sport will benefit," Wescott said.

Traditional powers concerned

The eight eligible conferences for the six 2001 AQs in addition to the CAA and the Ivy are the Patriot League, and the America East, Atlantic 10, Big East, Metro Atlantic Athletic and Northeast Conferences. Three of them (MAAC, Northeast and Patriot) have never had a tournament team. By 2002, unless there is an earthshaking restructuring of conferences and a proliferation of eligible new conferences with high RPIs, each could automatically qualify its champion. With a 12-team tournament bracket, some traditional powers could be left at home, especially if they get upset in their conference tournament or are an independent.

"There is a possibility that teams with a long successful history of sponsoring the sport (and making the tournament) could be hurt," said Susan Delaney-Scheetz, chair of the NCAA Women's Lacrosse Committee and assistant athletics director at Pennsylvania State University, which is an independent, since the Big Ten Conference does not have the six teams required to be awarded automatic qualification.

The Atlantic Coast Conference is in the same boat, which threatens some of the nation's strongest teams. Those teams, the University of Maryland, College Park; the University of Virginia; the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and Duke University, tend to dominate women's lacrosse more than they do even men's basketball. Either Maryland or Virginia has won every championship but one since 1991. The Terps have won the last five titles, the longest active string in Division I women's sports. Both North Carolina and Duke have been in the tournament the last two years.

The prospect of having one of those teams sit home in lieu of a likely weaker team continuing its season has some people concerned about the integrity of the event. That worry is exacerbated by the infancy of many of the programs in line for an automatic bid. The number of teams has exploded over the past few years, from 35 in 1993 to the current 69. Everyone in the sport likes the growth, but some question handing some of the teams automatic bids and whether that will further boost that movement.

"I'm all for growth of the sport (and the improvement of those teams)," said Virginia coach Julie Myers. "If (automatic qualification) does it, great. I just hope one makes the other happen. There are a lot of conferences now, but there is a real drop-off after the Ivy and the CAA. Those (other) conferences should get stronger (with AQ) but I can't see it happening soon."

Others excited

Meanwhile, teams traditionally on the outside looking in are planning for their coming-out party.

Monica DeCandilo, coach at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a team in its fourth year of existence and a member of the Northeast Conference, said her squad is ready.

"A lot of people say that having teams like ours will weaken the tournament," DeCandilo said. "I think this is giving my program a chance to prove itself. Why shouldn't those who aren't normally there get a chance to prove what they can do?"

Another of 2002's "eight" could be the winner of the MAAC. Cathy Vignati, who coaches conference member Fairfield University, the winner of the MAAC's regular-season title last season, also is understandably excited.

"It will be a tremendous boost to our program," Vignati said. "The strength of our conference is not that great, so (AQ) would be a phenomenal opportunity for us and a boost for the sport in the state of Connecticut. It would give us exposure and something to shoot for that otherwise would be very difficult to achieve."

In addition to helping the Stags, Vignati sees AQ helping the sport at the high-school level.

"I think it's good for the sport nationally," she said. "There will be a larger regional representation in the tournament whereas now it's mostly teams from the South. That wider range should help trigger interest in the high schools. We're already seeing a tremendous increase in interest in Connecticut high schools and we'd like to give those girls a goal to aspire to."

Most of the worries about quality could be rendered moot if the bracket is expanded. A recommendation from the women's lacrosse committee to the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet to expand the field to 16 was approved in February, along with similar requests from several other sports. The NCAA Executive Committee will decide on expansion sometime after the Division I budget is finalized later this year.

Some believe a watered-down tournament is possible if that doesn't happen. Myers is one of them.

"If it's a 12-team bracket and six teams automatically get in, there will probably be a lot of lopsided games in the first round and it will essentially be a six-team tournament."

Conference or independent?

Much of the ACC's and Big Ten's decision on whether to form a conference depends on whether there is bracket expansion, but even if that happens, it's still not clear-cut.

"(The ACC coaches) have talked about different alliances, but so far we really haven't decided whether to go forward," Myers said. "There are advantages and disadvantages to doing both. The disadvantage is that it would allow whoever those other teams are to be able to say they are part of the ACC, although they (technically) would not be playing for the ACC championship. They would get a lot of benefits of being an ACC team without being in the ACC.

"(If we do it), we will have to figure out what kind of teams we would want in there. Do we want good teams or great teams? I would love to see great teams, but that could knock some of the ACC teams out. Some will want to make sure the ACC teams are taken care of."

Scheetz said that Penn State also is looking at options, the most attractive of which would be to form a Big Ten women's lacrosse league. Ohio State University sponsors the sport and Northwestern University recently added it. Penn State is waiting to see what the rest of the conference does.

A bit lost in the issue is that the installation of AQ stripped the championship of the only AQ it already had: Division II. For the last two years, Division II's top team, which was West Chester University of Pennsylvania, had a pass into the field. There was no separate Division II championship.

All Division II teams will probably stay home this year because of the arrival of the Division I AQ, which has allowed the status of that championship to change from that of National Collegiate to basically Division I. (A Division II team could conceivably still get in if it beat a number of Division I teams in the regular season.) Kathy Krannebitter, West Chester field hockey coach and a Division II representative on the women's lacrosse committee, said the wait could be worth it.

"Normally (not having access) would have been a blow," she said. "Having an AQ the past two years has been great, despite the lopsided scores (both losses for West Chester). When the powers that be saw that (Division I AQ) would cause our bid to go away, maybe that spearheaded the push for a Division II championship."

The recommendation to start such a championship is on the table now waiting for the NCAA governance structure to act.

In a perfect world, all schools hope to get the 16-team bracket and the Division II championship approved, which then would make everyone a winner.