Starting in 1991 and 1992, the American South and Big South will qualify for automatic berths for the NCAA tournament.

So what, you say?

Since the NCAA cannot increase the number of automatic bids given to conference champions until 1998, a pair of other conferences will lose their respective automatic bids.

The Ivy League, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and other weaker conferences could find themselves short a bid to March Madness.

But the Ivy League restaked its claim in the first round of this year's tournament, when Princeton took third-ranked Georgetown to the wire. If it weren't for two last-second blocks by Hoya center Alonzo Mourning, the Tigers could still be in the tournament.

Princeton's performance bodes well for the Ivies when the NCAA Executive Committee decides which teams will lose their automatic bids.

"You never know what can happen," Princeton Coach Pete Carril said. "Hopefully, it will help the Ivy League to keep its automatic bid. It'll be unfair, it'll be insane. But like I've always said, 'If it can happen, it will happen."

"I would hope that it would," Dartmouth Coach Paul Cromier said. "It would be a travesty if the Ivy League lost its bid. One of the reasons was that we couldn't compete. Princeton has put a little damper on that argument. I was cheering for them, no question."

"I'm certainly hopeful that it would be a help to our conference," Harvard Coach Peter Roby said. "There's been some talk that the Ivy league didn't deserve an automatic bid because it couldn't compete against the stronger teams. You can't get much more competitive, losing to the number-one seed on the last play of the game."

"College athletics is about giving a team an opportunity to dream a little bit," Roby said. "We were all hoping that our league would be well represented. Princeton did a great job. They showed how good our league is and then some."

The Tigers displayed a lot of poise against Georgetown, leading for a good portion of the game and taking a 29-21 lead into halftime.

"They played well," Carril said. "We had to play a perfect game. But we played a 97 percent perfect game and the 3 percent was just enough that we lost by one point."

Princeton executed well, and its slow-down defense frustrated the Hoyas.

But the Tigers could not pull it out.

The only controversial play was when Mourning blocked Bob Scrabis at the top of the key. Scrabis thought he was fouled, but the referees didn't see it that way.

"The refs, myself and John [Thompson] can take it up with God when we get there," Carril said.

New Coach

Brown University named former New England Patriots quarterback coach Les Steckel on Saturday to be the Bruins' new offensive coordinator and quarterback coach.

The 42-year old Steckel served as an assistant coach for the Minnesota Vikings for five years before he served the 1984 season as the Vikings' head coach.

A 1968 graduate of the University of Kansas, he began his coaching career in 1972 at the University of Colorado and then joined Navy as an assistant.

Steckel went on to be an assistant for the San Francisco 49ers in 1978 before joining the Vikings.

Croteau Update

Last Friday, St. Mary's Julie Croteau became the first woman ever to play a NCAA baseball game. The freshman went 0 for 3 in the team's 4-1 loss to Spring Garden.

"I was really nervous during practice," Croteau said. "But after the first inning, I just tried to concentrate on the game. Maybe it will give other women incentive to play ball, or someone else can believe that they can do it."

One-Hitter

The Seahawks were only able to get one hit against Spring Garden's pitcher Dave Tittlemeyer, who struck out six batters. Croteau was not one of Tittlemeyer's strikeout victims.

Croteau cleanly fielded all six of her chances before being replaced in the top of the sixth inning.

With over 40 media members at the game, it was hard for both teams to think baseball. The Seahawks starting pitcher's first 15 pitches were balls. He gave up only three hits on the day, but the walks hurt him.

"It was really tough," Croteau said. "It kind of felt like I had the pressure of the world on my shoulders. I felt like I had to prove something. It's over and now I can just go out and play ball."

Quote of the Week

"There's not much difference between Santa Claus and me. We're two overweight, lovable guys that kids really enjoy." --Indiana basketball Coach Bob Knight.

Runner-up

"The challenges are tomorrow with the teams, but the challenge today for the coaches is not to say anything that will make anybody else mad. The challenge for you [the media] is to make this interesting. It gets me really competitive. I could box when this is over."--Texas women's basketball Coach Jody Conradt discussing pre-game news conferences.