Smaller brackets planned for winter, spring

Posted: Sep 30, 2020
Washington U. athletics photo

Although there are significant hurdles to holding winter sports, and holding winter championships as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA has announced an interim plan.

The plan, which was formally proposed by the Division III Championships Committee, will now go to the Division III Management Council in mid-October. If approved by the Management Council, the proposal would go to the Presidents Council, which generally approves items the Management Council has signed off on.

The committee recommended that winter and spring championships brackets be capped at 75 percent of their usual size. That would leave the Division III basketball NCAA Tournaments at 48 teams, the men's ice hockey tournament at nine and women's ice hockey at eight. In addition, updated dates for selections were announced.

“The Division III Championships Committee would like to thank the sport committees for providing their comments and suggestions about bracket composition,” said Kiki Jacobs, committee chair and director of athletics at Roger Williams, said in an NCAA news release. “These are difficult decisions that have to be made right now.”  

Although it is possible that not all conferences will participate in the 2020-21 championships, this setup would leave the field with just five at-large teams for basketball.

Most Division III conferences have already announced that they will not begin winter competition before Jan. 1. The schedule adds a week onto the end of the schedule and puts selections on March 7. Although not made official, the structure of the NCAA Tournament could be compacted as well, with the tournament potentially being played in two weekends instead of three.

In order for a tournament to be held, 60% of schools sponsoring the sport must be participating in the sport this season.

The dates and bracket sizes for winter sports:

Men’s and women’s basketball

  • Selection announcement date: March 7 (automatic qualification deadline: March 6).
  • Bracket size: 48 teams.

Men’s ice hockey

  • Selection announcement date and automatic qualification deadline: March 14.
  • Bracket size: Nine teams.

Women’s ice hockey

  • Selection announcement date and automatic qualification deadline: March 14.
  • Bracket size: Eight teams.

Men’s and women’s swimming and diving

  • Selection announcement date: March 10.
  • Championship format: There will not be any in-person zone diving meets to qualify for the championships. (An alternate selections method will be determined.) Since individual team sports cannot exceed 75% of the standard participation, 239 women and 195 men will compete.

Men’s and women’s indoor track and field

  • Selection announcement date: March 7.
  • Championship format: All participants will compete at one predetermined site. Individual and relay event sizes will be reduced to no more than 75% in 2021.

Wrestling

  • Selection announcement date: March 1.
  • Championship format: Usually, 180 wrestlers compete at one predetermined site, but that number will not exceed 75%, or 135 wrestlers, in 2021. Selections will be based on competition at six regional qualifying events.