The NCAA News - News & Features

III presidents give approval to championships enhancement

Models for subdividing and subgrouping Division III championships in those sports as well as football will be developed for presentation to the subcommittee in September, with a focus on the possibility of proposed legislation at the 1998 NCAA Convention.

The subcommittee, meeting June 25-26 in San Francisco, approved the recommendation of the Division III Task Force to Review the NCAA Membership Structure that no legislation be recommended for the 1997 Convention regarding championship subdivision or subgrouping. However, the subcommittee asked the task force to prepare at least one model subdividing championships and one model subgrouping championships, based on enrollment or sports sponsorship, or a combination.

Subdividing involves multiple national championships, one in each subdivision. Subgrouping has a single national championship resulting from the champion of a subgroup playing another subgroup champion until a national champion is determined.

The budget implications of each model are to be presented to the subcommittee along with the models.

The models are to incorporate the basic principles adopted by the task force in March -- that Division III student-athletes have proportionate opportunities to participate in postseason play and that teams from comparable institutions should face one another in championships competition.

At its September meeting, the subcommittee will determine whether regional forums should be scheduled in late fall to give the membership an opportunity to provide input on the new models.

A discussion forum at the January Convention already is planned, where a straw vote will be taken on the models to determine which one is favored.

Enhancement of the championships through bracket expansion was approved, with an additional $747,000 allocated to cover the cost of increased participation opportunities within the current Division III championships structure.

The enhancement affects only baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, women's softball, and women's volleyball. Access issues are considered most acute in those sports. Changes in other team and individual sports may be studied later.

With this expansion, there will continue to be one national championship in all sports; however, the championships bracket sizes will be increased, as necessary, consistent with access-to-participant guidelines of between one championship slot to eight member institutions and one championship slot to 12 members.

The task force had developed six discussion models for subdividing or subgrouping championships as a result of a request from the subcommittee at its March meeting. A survey containing the models -- all based on first enhancing the championships -- was sent to Division III member institutions in May and responses were reviewed at the task force's June meeting.

Because no model was clearly favored, the task force recommended to the subcommittee that further study and discussion occur before any legislation for subgrouping or subdividing was developed.

The subcommittee concurred with the task force's recommendation, but asked that the new models be developed and presented at the subcommittee's next meeting.

CEOs agree to sponsor transfer-eligibility proposal in 1997

A recommendation to change transfer-eligibility legislation to require that student-athletes be academically and athletically eligible to return to their previous institutions before being eligible to play was approved by the Division III subcommittee of the NCAA Presidents Commission at its June 25-26 meeting.

The Division III Steering Committee of the NCAA Council had recommended that the Presidents Commission sponsor legislation to revise the transfer legislation.

The proposed legislation would permit a student-athlete who previously had participated in intercollegiate athletics to transfer to a Division III institution and be eligible immediately for competition only if the student-athlete was academically and athletically eligible to return to his or her previous institution at the time the student-athlete left that institution.

The proposal would be effective August 1, 1997, if approved at the NCAA Convention in January.

In other actions, the subcommittee:

* Agreed that the Division III Administrative Committee would meet as needed rather than on a regular basis and that all actions of the committee would be reported to and ratified by the Division III Management Council and Presidents Council.

* Recommended that the Division III Budget Committee consist of six to eight members, with at least two representatives from the Division III Presidents Council serving on the committee, and that the vice-chair of the Presidents Council serve as the chair of the budget committee.