Despite a new direction and a new format, the California Community College basketball championships will remain local this season.

For the first time in decades, Ventura College will host the 2010-11 championships in March.

The school last hosted the tournament women's tournament in 1993 and the men's tournament in 1972 and 1973.

In the interest of "cost containment," the California Community College Athletic Association decided to reduce the tournament to a Final Four format and hold the event on a community college campus this season.

The event was held in Thousand Oaks, at Cal Lutheran University's Gilbert Center, last March. Ventura College and Saddleback College won the women's and men's state titles, respectively.

"We are pleased to announce that the 2011 CCCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Championships will be held at Ventura College Athletics Event Center (AEC)," wrote Carlyle Carter, the CCCAA president, in an e-mail announcing the decision Monday. "Less than 30 miles west of the site of the 2010 Championships, Ventura College is very accessible and the Ventura administration is enthusiastic and looking forward in assisting us in planning for a spectacular event for the participating student-athletes.

"In addition, the willingness of the Ventura County Visitors & Convention Bureau to assist us in securing competitive bids from various hotel properties to house the participating teams, CCCAA, and the CCCWBCA/MBCA was a huge selling point. Our site visit allowed us to see the venue and the necessary auxiliary facilities as well as the proximity of multiple lodging and restaurant establishments within minutes of the campus.

"The seating capacity at the AEC is also slightly larger than the 2010 facility which was primarily bolstered by the attendance of fans from nearby Ventura. In addition, the venue features items such as a scrolling matrix board, enhanced scoreboard and double tier seating creating an arena type atmosphere. We believe these added enhancements will allow for a true state championship environment for the student-athletes and fans."

We'll have more on the decision later in the weekend.

The proposal that would have shifted three Western State Conference schools into a Northern California conference was halted before it was brought to a vote before the Commission on Athletics' board Friday morning at the COA Convention in Ontario.

"They didn't even bring it up," said Moorpark College athletic director Howard Davis. "It's over."

The WSC could have lost five of its 15 schools as part of the controversial new structure, which would have moved Cuesta, Hancock and Bakersfield to the Central Valley Conference. All three schools opposed the plan.

"They basically dismissed the whole thing," said Ventura College athletic director Will Cowen. "There was no vote needed."

Antelope Valley College is still expected to petition to move to the WSC from the Foothill Conference.

"I would not be surprised if that happens," said Davis. "They're a good match for our conference."

The Commission on Athletics' state executive board was expected to vote Friday morning on a series of controversial reconferencing proposals which could see the Western State Conference shrink from 15 to 10 schools next year.

Proposed in the name of cost cutting, the new structure would see Bakersfield, Cuesta and Hancock shift regions to Northern California's Central Valley Conference.

All three schools adamantly oppose the changes, which would force the two Central Coast schools to traverse the dangerous routes 41, 46 and 166 rather than Highway 101.

"Our concerns, along with Hancock's concerns, are the travel commitments to be made on those types of roadways," said Cuesta athletic director Bob Mariucci Thursday. "The 41, 46 and 166 are some of the most dangerous roads in the entire state."

Along with its official response to the proposals, Cuesta submitted supporting CHP statistics which showed CVC highways as two to three times more dangerous as WSC highways.

The "Blood Alley" junction of Route 46 and 41 was the scene of the fatal collision that killed 24-year-old actor James Dean in 1955, but the Cuesta community was rocked by a more recently fatal crash in 2003, when Cuesta women's water polo player Casey Goodwin was killed on Route 41.

"Our institutional perspective is that we need to stay south for several reasons," said Hancock athletic director Kim Ensing, "primarily geography and the safety of the roads."

The proposal would also shift Santa Monica to the South Coast Conference, Citrus and Glendale to a new conference along the 210 freeway and Antelope Valley would join the WSC, which would no longer need a division structure in sports like baseball, basketball and soccer.

To make things even more confusing, Bakersfield and Hancock would remain in Southern California for football.

The San Luis Obispo Tribune and Bakersfield Californian published articles about the issue this week.

On March 17, the WSC voted unanimously to oppose reconferencing. Four of the five SoCal conference voted against the proposals. The only supporting conference, the Pacific Coast, is unaffected.

This morning's vote took place at the COA's annual convention in Ontario.

Carlyle Carter, the executive director of the California Community College's Commission on Athletics, seems pretty pleased with Cal Lutheran as a venue for its basketball championships.

"It's everything we need to have," Carter said Saturday. "Everything that we want our student athletes to experience."

And Sunday's title game, with the legions of Ventura fans and Fullerton's pep band, promise to provide the "championship atmosphere" Carter was talking about last week.

"It will be just like the games you see on TV," said Carter.

"For that kind of event at the two-year level, we really can't ask for anything more."

The California Community College Women's Basketball Coaches Association voted Saturday to support future championships in the CLU-like, gymnasium environment, according to several coaches.

"That's what we've decided as a body," said Orange Coast coach Mike Thornton. "We just need a site like this and one like this in Northern California.

"This atmophere is so great. This is the type of experience that makes the players feel like they're playing for something."

This week's Great Eight at Cal Lutheran isn't just the return of the California Community College basketball championships to Ventura County.

It will also represent an end to an era, as the Commission on Athletics Board has voted unanimously to cut back the eight-team tournament to four teams starting next season.

"We'll have a four-team championship rather than an eight-team championship in the future," said Carlyle Carter, the Executive Director of the California Community College Commission on Athletics.

Carter said the changes were because of the state's economic problems. The regional playoffs have been more economically viable than the state tournament.

"Our research, our data, shows that the regionals are good financially and the state championship is not," said Carter. "You hate to have it come down to gate, but we're in a different day. In an ideal world, we'd have a big CBS contract and be able reimburse all our teams.

"What we're trying to do... is to reduce the expenses and maximize the revenue so we can provide more a of a reimbursement to participating teams."

The changes will mean four rounds of regional play and two rounds of state competition, rather than this year's three-and-three system.

To save on leasing costs, future state championships may also return to on-campus venues.

"Some of our facilities are some of the nicest facilities in the state, so why not take advantage of them?" asked Carter.

In the 37 years since Ventura hosted the 1973 championships, the men's tournament has only been hosted by a community college once, by Cerritos in 1986. The women's tournament was last hosted on campus by Orange Coast in 1995.

"The basketball championships are a great experience," said Carter. "We want to try to keep that experience for both the men and the women. If that means cutting back and going to a smaller venue... then we're going to do that."

The geographical structure of the Western State Conference's North Division along the 101 freeway is under threat.

Northern Western State Conference schools Cuesta, Hancock and Bakersfield colleges would leave the WSC for the Northern region, if an emergency proposal to realign California community college conferences were approved.

The measure, unveiled at Thursday's Commission on Athletics meeting in Burlingame, was tabled until December Friday morning by the COA board.

In the plan, the three schools would join the Central Valley Conference (Fresno, Sequoias, Merced, Modesto, ect.) and be replaced by Lancaster's Antelope Valley College, which is part of the Foothill Conference (San Bernardino Valley, Chaffey, ect).

Cuesta does not field a football team, but apparently Hancock and Bakersfield would remain in the Southern California Football Association, where they play in the Northern Conference with Ventura and Moorpark.

The management council also approved 19 minor cost containment items regarding the reduction of contests, dues and playoff seeding from April through 2012.