National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News Features

December 23, 1996

Presidents to receive plan for II 'educational assessment'

Division II members of the NCAA Presidents Commission are expected to receive and share with delegates to the 1997 Convention a plan for the creation of an anticipated "educational assessment" program for provisional members.

The Division II Management Council Transition Team approved and forwarded to the presidents a plan for the assessment program during its December 10 meeting in Kansas City, Missouri.

Division II delegates will be asked at the Convention to adopt proposed legislation (Proposal No. 56) that would require provisional members to complete such an assessment before achieving active membership. Division II presidents asked the Management Council Transition Team in September to present a plan in time for Division II members to discuss it at the Convention.

The Division II Presidents Council Transition Team will review the plan during its pre-Convention meeting, and could accept it as presented or make modifications.

It is anticipated that if the plan is accepted by the Presidents Council Transition Team, its elements could be shared with the membership during discussion of Proposal No. 56.

The initial plan was formulated by an NCAA staff project team.

The plan would lead provisional members through three distinct phases in the assessment program, which is designed to give prospective members a vehicle for evaluating their commitment and preparedness for active membership and to provide greater assurance to current members of those prospective members' readiness.

The three phases are:

  • Exposure to and education on rules, membership requirements and compliance concepts/strategies associated with NCAA athletics programs.

  • General application of that knowledge to an institution's campus.

  • Initial assessment and verification of how the institution is responding to that new information.

    Required activities proposed

    A number of required activities are proposed in the assessment plan:

  • A visit by a Division II chief executive officer to the provisional member's CEO.

  • An orientation to Division II membership requirements, the NCAA Manual and national office services.

  • Specific assistance in completing the required institutional self-study of the athletics program (using the enhanced Division II Institutional Self-Study Guide).

  • Instruction regarding NCAA rules and an assessment of current rules knowledge.

  • Compliance-systems education and self-assessment concepts.

  • Open forums with active Division II members.

  • Sharing of compliance strategies.

  • Verification that membership requirements are being met and that key elements are in place in the athletics program.

    Provisional members would be required to submit an annual report to the Division II Management Council summarizing progress in fulfilling the assessment requirements. Successful completion of the program would result in consideration of active membership by the NCAA Division II Presidents Council.

    Membership action required

    Implementation of the program is contingent in part on adoption of 1997 Convention Proposal No. 55, which would lengthen the NCAA's current provisional-membership period from three to four years. The first two years of the expanded provisional-membership period would be devoted to educational activities.

    Provisional members then would be expected to comply fully with NCAA rules during the third and fourth years of the period.

    Its implementation also would await the lifting of an NCAA membership moratorium. That moratorium currently extends through the date of implementation of the Association's new governance structure, but the NCAA Transition Oversight Committee recently recommended that the moratorium be extended through at least the 1998 Convention, in order to give all three divisions an opportunity to consider legislative proposals through their new legislative processes (see December 16 issue of The NCAA News).

    Educational assessments would be required only for institutions that petition for Division II provisional membership after the moratorium is lifted.

    Some aspects of the proposed program's cost still will be studied, including consideration of the expenses that institutions will incur in completing the assessment program. Those expenses likely would include institutional staff members' attendance at NCAA Conventions and regional seminars, as well as participation in other events.

    Enhanced compliance services

    With planning for the educational assessment program for provisional members well underway, the Division II Presidents Transition Team soon will turn its attention to enhancing compliance services for active Division II members.

    The same staff project team that formulated the assessment plan soon will present a plan to implement an enhancement of current compliance services and program. The Division II subcommittee of the Presidents Commission recommended such enhancement earlier this year.

    The enhancement is expected to include expanded consultative services, technical assistance and compliance workshops for Division II presidents and athletics department staffs.

    The staff project team anticipates forwarding a plan to the Presidents Council Transition Team after the 1997 Convention.

    Withdrawal of proposal recommended

    The NCAA Division II Steering Committee agreed December 10 to recommend to the NCAA Council that it withdraw 1997 Convention Proposal No. 71.

    The proposal would require that a Division II student-athlete who participates in organized competition after turning 21 but before enrolling in college for the first time be charged with a season of competition for any such competition during each 12-month period following that birthday.

    The Division II subcommittee of the NCAA Presidents Commission asked the Division II Steering Committee in September to consider withdrawal of the proposal. The Division II presidents expressed doubts about whether such a rule is needed and noted philosophical concerns about legislation that could reduce what was termed a traditional Division II commitment to providing student-athletes with access to opportunities for competition.

    In response, the steering committee agreed to ask the Council to withdraw the proposal. The Council will consider that request at its pre-Convention meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, along with a recommendation by the steering committee that the Council sponsor a resolution directing the formation of a membership project team to study the issue during 1997.

    The proposed resolution would acknowledge "a general interest among the Division II membership in exploring ways to balance the opportunity for a competitive athletics experience for all individuals participating in Division II competition and to avoid a possible unfair advantage in this regard for more experienced athletes."

    The proposed project team would include chief executive officers, athletics administrators, faculty athletics representatives and student-athletes as members, and could develop proposed legislation for consideration at the 1998 Convention.