Attendance at the 2005 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship set an all-time record.

At its meeting in San Francisco June 26-30, the Division I Men's Basketball Committee received the financial report from the 2005 championship, which showed that attendance was 98.4 percent of capacity, an all-time record. The previous high was 97.9 percent in 1994.

Attendance at conventional arenas -- the 10 sites where games were not played in domed stadiums -- was 99.9 percent of capacity, also a record. The previous high was 97.9 percent in 1994.

"The attendance figures show what we already knew -- that this is a tremendously popular event," said Bob Bowlsby, director of athletics at the University of Iowa and chair of the committee. Bowlsby also noted that television ratings were higher than in the past several years. "Our challenge now is to build on that success for the future."

The RCA Dome in Indianapolis established a record for receipts at a domed stadium, $3.454 million. Receipts at Syracuse University were $2.151 million, third-highest for a domed stadium. Regional receipts typically are lower than those for first and second rounds because regionals feature two sessions and four games; first and second rounds include three sessions and six games.

Net receipts for the first and second rounds in Charlotte, North Carolina, established an all-time record for conventional buildings, $2.742 million. Net receipts at the sessions in Oklahoma City were $2.335 million, fifth highest ever.

Receipts at three of the four 2005 regional sites also ranked in the top six all-time for convention buildings: No. 3 Austin ($1.667 million), No. 4 Chicago ($1.665 million) and No. 6 Albuquerque ($1.477 million.)

Other recommendations

In other action, the committee reviewed the results of several research projects and took action regarding selected administrative issues.

Members discussed increasing the minimum seating capacity for regional sessions to 15,000, effective with the 2009 championship, and agreed to further study the concept and possibly integrate it into specifications for host facilities in the fall. The current minimum capacity is 12,000 for first/second rounds and regionals.

The group noted that the NCAA received 106,568 applications for tickets to the 2006 Final Four, representing the most since 111,000 applications were received for the 2001 event in Minneapolis. The committee also pointed out that the move to the online application system continues to draw increased interest in the process.

The committee also recommended that each of the four regional champions be presented a trophy at the regional site, in conjunction with the postgame net-cutting celebration. The national champion would receive an additional trophy at the Final Four.

In light of the fact that several conferences have more members than they had previously, the committee discussed the possible effects of larger conferences on the bracketing policies. As a result of that discussion, the committee agreed that, if it is unable to reconcile the bracket after exhausting all options, it will have the flexibility to assign teams from conferences with multiple participants to meet each other after the tournament's first round. The current principle requires that teams from the same conference not meet until the regional finals.

In conjunction with a review of the principles and procedures for selections and bracketing, the committee noted that 36 institutions were assigned to tournament sites outside of their natural geographic regions in 2005, continuing a downward trend since a new bracketing policy was adopted in 2002. That change was made after an all-time high 46 institutions were sent outside their natural regions in the 2001 championship.

The committee also noted that there has been no competitive advantage for teams that had an additional day of rest between second rounds and regional semifinals.

Committee members reviewed the effect of the new weightings for road victories on the Rating Percentage Index (RPI) that were used for the first time in 2005, and agreed that the weightings resulted in the RPI being a more effective tool.

At the same time, the committee reaffirmed that the RPI is only one of many tools it uses, and members agreed that no computer system can ever accurately evaluate qualitative factors such as games missed by key players or coaches, travel difficulties, a team's performance in the last 10 games of the season or the emotional effects of specific games.

The committee also reviewed a study that showed no significant statistical correlation between the number of conference games on a team's schedule and its RPI ranking.

The committee also confirmed the following timelines for selecting preliminary-round sites for 2009-10 and Final Four sites for 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015:

2009-10 preliminary rounds

• December 2005 -- Send bid specifications and facility-availability questionnaires to Division I institutions and conferences;

• February 2006 -- Identify finalists;

• June 2006: Select sites.

2012-2015 Final Fours

• August 2006 -- Send bid specifications to all prospective host institutions whose sites meet the minimum-seating and hotel requirements;

• December 2006 -- Identify finalists;

• June 2007 -- Select sites.

Other highlights

Division I Men's Basketball Committee
June 26-30/San Francisco

• Agreed to consider options for entertainment or other commemorative events at halftimes and between games of the Final Four, in addition to the time currently provided to the two participating institutions.

• Revised the credentialing criteria so that a newspaper in the host institution's market with circulation of less than 60,000 qualifies for credentials if it covers college basketball on a daily basis during the regular season (that is, full-time staff members cover games several nights each week). Previously, a newspaper was required to cover 90 percent of the host institutions' home games.

• After reviewing the current policy that requires the locker room to be open to all media if one agency's representatives are admitted after games, the committee agreed to preclude participating institutions' staff members from shooting video or conducting interviews on behalf a media entity during the postgame cooling-off period.

• Reviewed issues relative to game officiating and agreed to further study the process of evaluating officials during the tournament.

• Voted to enhance the guidelines that are provided to the Final Four institutions for news conferences that are held on campus the Monday or Tuesday of Final Four week.

• Met with representatives of CBS Sports to review the bundled-rights agreement, the 2005 championship and prepare for 2006 and beyond.