Beginning with the 2005 championship, the committee -- which met July 6-9 in San Francisco -- will send four teams each to 16 regional sites. The 16 regional winners will advance to super regional play, in which two teams each at eight sites will compete for the opportunity to appear in the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City.

The double-elimination regional tournaments will be contested on the Friday, Saturday and, if necessary, Sunday immediately before Memorial Day. The newly established super regionals will feature best-of-three series and will be played the Friday and Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend.

The format is similar to the one currently in place for the Division I Baseball Championship.

"We established a new attendance record of 41,034 during the 2004 Women's College Series," said acting committee chair Roy Kortmann of Long Island University-Brooklyn Campus. "With the additional weekend of play and the excitement surrounding the new super regionals, we hope to meet or exceed that number in the coming years."

In other action, the committee voted to modify the portion of the site-selection criteria to say that lights are preferred, but not required. The group believes the action will give more schools an opportunity to host NCAA softball postseason play.