COLORADO SPRINGS – At the NJCAA Annual Meeting held in Colorado Springs, on Wednesday, the NJCAA Board of Directors gave unanimous approval to major changes in the Junior College Basketball Tournament in Hutchinson as well as the Women’s National Tournament in Salina.  A final vote will take place on Saturday, which may include amendments to the original proposal.

Both tournaments will expand to 24-teams from the current 16. There will be 16-district champions involved, with 4-more teams selected at-large, and 4-more teams would be qualifiers out of a yet to be determined ‘zone’ model.

It’s conceivable that Kansas could get 2-teams involved in the National Tournament, in fact the plan could allow as many as 3-teams from one Region.

It will now be a single elimination tournament, with no consolation games played except the 3rd place game on Saturday night.

The 2013 National Tournament will be played on March 18 through the 23rd. All teams will be seeded by the Selection Committee – 1 through 24. The top 8 seeds will draw a first round bye.Play will begin on Monday at 10:00 a-m, with 6-games played, 6-more games Tuesday, 4- games will be played on Wednesday and Thursday, with only 2-games played on Fri. and Sat. night. Total games played under the new plan will be 24, two games less than the current 26 game plan.