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A "quality wins bonus" and "weighting for home and away" games will be factored into the NCAA tournament selection criteria this year, under legislation just approved by the NCAA Championships Cabinet.
The selection process for the NCAA tournament is subject to an objective algorithm, commonly known as the Pairwise. (full explanation here). One of the existing criteria — Record vs. Teams Under Consideration — will be replaced by the new criteria.
The changes still need final approval from the NCAA Board of Directors, but that's usually a rubber stamp on issues like this.
Many coaches have been clamoring for changes in recent years, but, in light of the impending major conference re-alignment coming this season, the issue got particular attention at this year's coach's convention and Men's Ice Hockey Committee meetings.
The concern has been that a big difference in the amount of home and away games, puts teams from the smaller conferences — who, on average, play more road non-conference games — at a disadvantage in the selection criteria.
For example, among teams in the new Big Ten, Wisconsin has 14 non-league games, 10 home and four away; Ohio State has 14 non-league games, 11 home and three away; and Minnesota has 16 non-league games, 12 at home (including a tournament at the Xcel Center) and four away.
The details are still unknown, but there were a number of proposals on the table when the issue was being discussed over the summer. One proposal, for example, would re-balance the RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) evenly among home and road games — removing the advantage.
It's not yet known, however, which form the changes will take.
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