“The at-large berths are pretty significant,” Anderson said. “All the games are more meaningful. [The expansion] may support some traditional rivalries.”

Both hockey and lacrosse benefit from the fact the expansions would not increase the length of the tournaments.

The softball expansion, however, according to the baseball format, would potentially move the championship two weeks later.

The committee, though, sees great benefits to the expansion. With 16 host sites, significantly more parts of the country will be exposed to NCAA softball.

Expansion would improve the exposure of NCAA softball to the northeast in particular. In the past two years, not one northeastern team has earned the right to host an NCAA regional. This affected the Harvard softball team in 2000, when it made NCAAs and had to travel all the way to Oklahoma. An increased number of regionals would increase the chances of northeastern teams hosting and reduce travel costs for area schools.

Of the Harvard men’s lacrosse, men’s hockey, and softball teams, softball is the only program to have made NCAAs in the past five years, earning automatic berths in 1998 and 2000. Men’s lacrosse last made the tournament in 1996 and men’s hockey’s most recent selection was in 1994.