D3hoops.com: Notables

The 2006 Division III women's basketball tournament will feature 63 teams, with automatic bids given to 38 conferences, four Pool B bids set aside for teams outside of those 38 conferences, and 21 Pool C bids available at large for everyone left over.

Previous years' tournaments were limited to 50 teams, which was originally intended to be one for every 7.5 Division III women's basketball teams, but eventually became less than one spot for every eight teams. The new ratio is one spot for every 6.5 teams.

The expanded format, which resulted in 59 men's tournament teams (scroll down), means one team will get a first-round bye. And because the new tournament format places teams in four-team regionals to be played as Friday/Saturday games on the first weekend, the first night of the tournament will feature just one game, the equivalent of an 8/9 game in which two teams face off to play the top seed on Saturday.

If the game is at all reachable, we'll broadcast it live.

The Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference lost its automatic bid for 2005-06 when Dominican moved to the Lake Michigan Conference and left the NIIC with just six members.

There are 409 teams eligible for the Division III NCAA women's basketball tournament. This year's Final Four will be held at Springfield College, in Springfield, Mass., on March 17-18.

November 11, 2005