When are the selections announced?
Selection Sunday is Feb. 29.

Who goes to the tournament?
Fifty teams go to the tournament — 37 conference champions, 6 runners-up from those conferences (Pool C) and 7 teams who are not in those 37 conferences (Pool B).

What conferences receive automatic bids?
Automatic bids are awarded to the champions of:
American Southwest Conference: Hardin-Simmons
Atlantic Women's Colleges Conference: Mary Baldwin
Capital Athletic Conference: Marymount
Centennial Conference: McDaniel
City University of New York Athletic Conference: Hunter
College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin: Wheaton (Ill.)
Commonwealth Coast Conference: Salve Regina
Empire 8: Ithaca
Great Northeast Athletic Conference: Emmanuel
Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference: Franklin
Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Buena Vista
Lake Michigan Conference: Lakeland
Little East Conference: Southern Maine
Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference: Salem State
Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association: Albion
Middle Atlantic Commonwealth: Widener
Middle Atlantic Freedom: Scranton
Midwest Conference: Ripon
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Carleton
New England Small College Athletic Conference: Bowdoin
New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference: Clark
New Jersey Athletic Conference: New Jersey
North Coast Athletic Conference: Wittenberg
Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference: Aurora
Northwest Conference: Puget Sound
Ohio Athletic Conference: Wilmington
Old Dominion Athletic Conference: Eastern Mennonite
Pennsylvania Athletic Conference: Alvernia
St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Maryville (Mo.)
Skyline Conference: Mount St. Mary
Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference: DePauw
State University of New York Athletic Conference: Cortland State
University Athletic Association: New York University
USA South Athletic Conference: Christopher Newport
Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association: Union
Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: UW-Stevens Point

Who selects teams in Pool B and Pool C?
The selections are made by the Division III women's basketball national committee, with one member from each region. Each national committee member chairs a regional committee of 4-7 people. This committee produces the regional rankings the last five weeks of the regular season.

How does the committee evaluate strength of schedule?
The Division III Championships Committee approved the following index to assist in the evaluation of teams’ relative strength of schedule (new in women's for 2004):

The index:
• Includes only contests versus regional competition leading up to the championship.
• Is calculated by adding the total number of points and dividing by the number of games.
• Defines a neutral games as being in neither team’s locale and, as such, is awarded as if it were an away game.
• Is calculated for ratings using an opponent’s regional record at the time of the rating and for selection to the championship using an opponent’s final record at the time of selection.

How many teams go from each region?
It doesn't work that way anymore. Now the Pool B and C bids are made on a national basis, meaning it is possible that nine teams could go from the Central and only three teams from the East. Once the 50 teams are selected, they will be grouped into (theoretically) geographically based brackets of six teams each. Two brackets will have seven teams, or one bracket will have eight teams, in order to reach 50.

Why 50 when the men have 48?
There are more Division III women's basketball teams than men's teams. The number of teams in the NCAA tournament in each sport is based on the number of schools that sponsor the sport — one playoff spot for every 7.5 teams. The field in all NCAA Division III tournaments will be expanding in 2006 to one spot for every 6.5 eligible teams, with women's basketball in line to increase to about 62 teams. All new bids will go to Pool C.