"I think it's lonnnnnnng overdue."

That's how North Idaho College men's basketball coach Jared Phay summed up the announcement that the NJCAA will expand its men's and women's Division I basketball tournaments from 16 to 24 teams, starting in 2013.

BOTH THE men's and women's national tournaments, scheduled for March 18-23, 2013, in Hutchinson, Kan., (men) and Salina, Kan., (women), will consist of 16 automatic qualifiers, with four at-large bids and another four bids rotating within other zones throughout the nation.

Each zone will be made up of four districts, with a rotating extra bid every four years between the different areas.

Unlike in previous years, the tournament is single-elimination, with only a consolation (third-place) game for those teams that lose in the semifinals.

"I think it makes sense," North Idaho College athletic director Al Williams said. "It's kind of like the NCAA tournament. The format wasn't the kind of tournament you could work your way back like in softball to play for a championship. For basketball, most teams are so devastated after a loss, it's hard to get them back up for a consolation game."

In the cases of both the NIC men's and women's basketball teams, the new format would have given them another shot at advancing to the NJCAA tournament last month. The men finished as runner-up in the Region 18 tournament, while the women were ranked in the top 10 most of the season and won the Scenic West Athletic Conference championship before losing in the Region 18 semifinals.

"I think it's a great deal," Williams said. "Too often in our conference, the best teams are stuck at home. It also gives our region champion a higher seed at nationals."

WITH ONLY four at-large bids up for grabs among 200 D-I schools, every game matters.

“I’m excited overall,” Phay said. “It makes me feel like every game means something now. Before, if you were ranked in the preseason, it didn’t mean as much. But it does now.”

Both tournaments will also be pre-seeded, instead of being a blind draw.

Seeding criteria will include: 60 percent based on the final men’s and women’s poll; 20 percent will be strength of schedule and conference/district and the final 20 percent based on results of the district at nationals.

The top eight teams must be district champions to earn a first round bye.

The new criteria could lead to the NIC men, in particular, scheduling tougher teams in nonconference play.

“That’s something we’ll have to figure out,” Phay said. “We end up beating up on each other so much in our conference, but if you can figure out the formula, it would be a good thing to do. You also don’t want to have too many losses, but you want to have some quality wins.”

Scheduling more teams from the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges is one option.

“That could be a challenge too,” Phay said. “Some of those NWAACC teams are pretty good. With that being said, when we play Spokane, it will be about more than bragging rights — now it’s something that affects your postseason chances.”

WILLIAMS WILL serve on the at-large selection committee for the western zone this year.

The top eight seeds in both tournaments will receive a first-round bye.

“Everyone is excited about it,” Williams said. “The format has been stale for so long.”

In the women’s tournament this season, four teams advanced with more than 30 wins and both eventual champion Trinity Valley and Hutchinson were unbeaten entering the final day.

“It’s been frustrating for the teams that the best two teams would have to play in the first round,” Williams said. “It’s exciting and makes it a more respected tournament to do it this way.”

The Region 18 tournament women’s champion advances automatically, but now every four years the runner-up will also move onto the NJCAA tournament.

“It would have really benefited us this year,” Williams said. “We could have gotten an at-large bid, or should have gotten one. That would have been the reward for a 24-5 regular season.”

There were five men’s teams from the SWAC ranked in the top 20 during the season, with only Southern Idaho (4th) finishing in the top 20. Both NIC and Salt Lake received votes in the final poll.

The Region 18 men’s champion will continue to play the Region 1 (Arizona) champion March 9 for a berth at nationals. NIC will host next year’s Region 18 men’s and women’s tournaments Feb. 28-March 2.

“For our region, because our league is so tough, this is what we need to do,” Phay said. “Hopefully voters get away from just voting on our record.”

NIC’s women were ranked ninth in the final poll and the Cardinals were the only team ranked or receiving votes in their final poll. Snow advanced to nationals and went 1-2.

In order to complete the field for nationals by March 9, teams in the SWAC will begin conference play the weekend of Dec. 13-15.

Williams noted NIC will open on the road with games at Colorado Northwestern and Utah State-Eastern Utah due to the annual Tri-State wrestling tournament in Coeur d’Alene that weekend.

“Hopefully now the best teams will be going to nationals now,” Phay said.

Bids are also open to host the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in the near future.

“They would allow for other communities to put in bids,” Williams said. “What we really want is to get some energy. There’s some benefits to having the tournament in the southwest, but it’s not a foregone conclusion it will be there every year.”

Phay added that while it’s a start, it’s still not a perfect system.

“I’m pretty excited about it,” Phay said. “It’s long overdue. Now the top seeds will get a bye into the second round. I think the number needs to expand to 32, but it should be a good thing.”

IN OTHER changes, the field for nationals has also expanded in men’s and women’s soccer.

Instead of an eight-team tournament, the field will now expand to 12. NIC is the only team in Region 18 with a soccer team, and will compete against teams from Region 1 (Arizona), as well as Region 9 (Wyoming and Nebraska).

Every other year, two teams from the region that hosts nationals will advance. Nationals will be held at Yavapai (Prescott, Ariz.) in 2014.

NIC bid to host the NJCAA volleyball tournament at the HUB Sports Center in Liberty Lake from 2014 to 2016, but the tourney was instead awarded to Casper, Wyo.

“The committee wasn’t comfortable with bringing in temporary bleachers at the HUB,” Williams said. “This is just one more reason why we need a community sports complex. We just don’t have the facility that we desperately need to host events like this.”

When NIC was awarded the 2011 NJCAA wrestling tournament, they were going hold the event at the HUB before moving it to the Spokane Convention Center, citing space limitations.

SPEAKING OF wrestling, North Idaho College will get some company at the Region 18 tournament, with Western Wyoming and Northwest University in Powell, Wyo., joining in wrestling only.

Both Western Wyoming and Northwest were the only teams in Region 9.

Next year’s Region 18 tournament will be hosted by Clackamas Community College in Oregon City.

Tournament hosts will be determined after this year. NIC, Northwest, Western Wyoming, Southwest Oregon and Highline will be put into a blind draw for the right to host regionals over the next five years.

Clackamas and Yakima Valley, which hosted this year’s tournament, won’t be eligible.

The committee also placed a limit of 22 years old on international players for basketball. Also, foreign players, whether walk-on or on scholarship, cannot exceed 25 percent of the roster.

That rule goes into effect in August of 2013.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com.