News

NCAA D-I men's committee sticks with status quo

July 07, 2009

Uneventful.

That was the best way to describe the proceedings during the NCAA men's Division I golf committee's recent summer meeting.

Of course, considering all the heavy lifting the committee has done when it has gotten together at this time the past few years--doing away with regional allocations in the post-season, establishing the ".500 rule" for NCAA-regional eligibility, changing the format of the NCAA Championship to use match play to determine the winning team--two lazy days in Indianapolis wasn't the worst thing to have occurred.

That's also not to say there wasn't a fair amount of discussion and debate that took place. Members of the committee, chaired by Charlotte senior associate athletic director Darin Spease used the time to review some of its recent changes as well as try to get a handle on some coming issues.

Also to be discussed at the Town Hall meeting is how to handle the third round of stroke play at the NCAA Championship. Currently, the leading teams after 36 holes play in the morning wave, creating potentially an anti-climatic environment in the afternoon when the remaining schools in the 30-team field are finishing their final round. The simplest solution would be to reverse the order and have the leading teams play in the afternoon, although there is a group of coaches that would prefer to have the morning times for the leading teams as it typically allows them to play the course in the best conditions.