National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

January 12, 1998

III looks at financial aid, automatic qualification

Don't expect Division III delegates to get bogged down in the legislative process during the 1998 NCAA Convention.

The division has a minuscule agenda of seven legislative proposals that should be dealt with in short order. (A review of proposed legislation in Division III appears on page C-6 of this issue of The NCAA News.)

Instead, the main business of this Convention for Division III will be discussion of two critical issues: championships automatic qualification and financial aid. During the automatic-qualification discussion January 12, the membership will review proposed principles and will be given an opportunity to ask questions and provide input. The financial aid discussion will take place the morning of January 13 and will have an educational objective.

Automatic qualification

The automatic-qualification principles created by the Division III Championships Committee are intended to provide broader access to conference champions and equitable access for independent institutions in the division's championships for team sports.

The principles were drafted by the Championships Committee at the request of the Division III Management Council and Presidents Council. Both groups have reasserted the competitive value of in-season regional play and conference championships.

The guiding principles are as follows:

  • Automatic qualification for conferences that meet all requirements will be provided.

  • Proportional berths for independent institutions will be provided. Independents should receive berths based on the same ratio as automatic-qualifying conferences. Institutions from conferences that do not receive automatic qualification will be considered as part of the independent pool. The at-large pool will comprise institutions that are not conference champions or independent selections.

  • At-large berths will be determined based on regional and conference regular-season competition.

  • Whenever possible, all members of a conference will be placed in the same region for selection purposes.

    The principles provide 10 requirements for automatic qualification:

  • Conferences must have at least seven NCAA members that sponsor the sport on a varsity intercollegiate basis in the division in which automatic qualification is sought and that are eligible for the NCAA championship, and have at least seven members eligible for the NCAA championship participate in the process that determines the automatic qualifier. Conferences with 14 or more members will receive an additional automatic berth.

  • The conference must have been a member of the Association for two consecutive academic years, although the Championships Committee may grant a waiver of the two-year waiting period.

  • The conference must have conducted competition in the sport in question for two consecutive years at the time of its application for automatic qualification. The Championships Committee may consider requests to waive the two-year period.

  • Conferences must sponsor a minimum of three men's and three women's team sports. Sport-specific exemptions may apply.

  • Conference competition must be conducted in the applicable sport and the conference champion in that sport must be determined no later than the date on which participants are selected for the NCAA championship, either by regular-season conference competition or a conference meet or tournament, as indicated at the time of application. If a conference's competition to determine its automatic qualifier is unexpectedly terminated (such as in the case of inclement weather), the conference may designate its qualifier, provided it had established objective criteria for making that designation and has communicated that information to the appropriate sports committee by a specified deadline.

  • If there is a tie for the conference championship, the conference shall be responsible for determining which team shall represent the conference in the NCAA competition.

  • A conference may establish subdivisions and conduct competition within each subdivision to determine a conference champion as long as each subdivision consists of at least four members.

  • The conference must maintain and actively enforce compliance with eligibility rules at least as stringent as those in NCAA Bylaw 14 applicable to its members.

  • All eligible conference member institutions must agree to participate in the appropriate NCAA championship. If a conference champion is ineligible to compete, declines to compete or cannot compete for any reason, automatic qualification shall be withdrawn for that year and the remaining conference members shall be considered at large.

  • All institutions may hold membership in only that conference in the sport in which automatic qualification is sought and may participate in only that conference's process to determine the automatic qualifier.

    A draft of the principles was shared with the chairs of sports committees during an August 1 orientation session and each sports committee has had an opportunity to comment on the principles.

    After reviewing the draft at its meeting in October, the Management Council recommended that the principles be distributed to the membership in mid-November for review and comment. The Presidents Council approved the mailing and included a cover memorandum explaining the development and status of the initiative. It was sent to athletics directors and conference commissioners who were asked to solicit input from others on their campuses, especially chief executive officers.

    The comments were to be returned to the NCAA national office in early December in preparation for the Convention discussion.

    Financial aid

    Because of concerns about whether Division III financial aid legislation is understood by Division III institutions and whether it is uniformly applied, time has been set aside to address the subject.

    The Division III Presidents Council decided at its meeting in October that a session should be devoted to educating the membership on existing financial aid legislation in preparation for possible revisions.

    As a first step toward revising the financial aid legislation, the Division III business session will include a forum to educate the membership on existing legislation governing financial aid for Division III student-athletes.

    The Division III guiding principles state that a student-athlete may receive financial aid from the institution as long as the aid is not based in any way on athletics ability or participation and the aid is within the student-athlete's need. Financial aid exceeding need can be given in the form of academic honor awards, awards of circumstance and nonathletics achievement awards but athletics participation or ability cannot be taken into consideration.

    Because concerns were raised about whether the rules were being applied uniformly throughout the division, the Division III Financial Aid and Awards Committee was charged by the Division III Steering Committee of the former NCAA Council with reviewing existing financial aid legislation as it is applied by the division's institutions and determining whether the legislation reflects current financial aid practices.

    In July, the committee proposed sending a survey to Division III institutions asking general questions about the division's philosophy as it relates to financial aid. But the Division III Management Council recommended that instead of distributing that survey, emphasis be placed on educating the membership on existing legislation and clarifying the rules during a forum at the Convention. The Presidents Council concurred with the recommendation.

    In November, a list of 10 key issues was distributed to the membership, along with a request for institutions to indicate the issues of greatest interest. Results of the survey will be used to focus the content of the discussion at the Convention.

    Current legislation allows Division III institutions to give financial aid to student-athletes without consideration of need in three ways -- through academic honor awards, awards of circumstance or nonathletics achievement awards.

    An academic honor award must be given on the basis of specific criteria as set forth in Bylaw 15.4.6.2. The award must be given to either a student who was in the upper 20 percent of the high-school graduating class or who earned a cumulative high-school grade-point average of at least 3.500 or who achieved a minimum ACT sum score of 100 or a minimum SAT score of 1140 (if taken subsequent to April 1, 1995). Athletics ability or participation cannot be a criterion, and athletics department staff members cannot be involved in designating the recipients of such awards.

    An award of circumstance is different from an academic honor award in that there are no predetermined criteria such as the GPA or test-score requirement that must be met. However, an award of circumstance must be approved by the Division III Management Council and must meet the following guidelines:

  • The awards automatically are available to all members of the student body in general who meet publicized, objective qualifications and are awarded on bases having no relationship to athletics ability.

  • The institution may not establish quotas of such awards for student-athletes.

  • The awards must be identified in the appropriate institutional publication listing financial aid awards available to all students.

  • The award must be provided automatically to any student who qualifies. An example of an award of circumstance would be an award given to all children of clergy members.

    A nonathletics achievement award also must be approved by the Management Council. Guidelines for those awards are:

  • Recipients must be selected by a committee composed predominantly of the faculty of an academic department, division or school of the institution. An athletics department staff member may not be a member of the committee that determines which students receive the awards.

  • Competition for the award is open to all members of the student body who meet publicized qualifications.

  • The award has no relationship to athletics ability or participation.

    An example of a nonathletics achievement award would be an award given to the outstanding art student in the art department.

    After the Convention discussion, the Financial Aid and Awards Committee will discuss whether revisions to existing legislation may be necessary to bring legislation in line with existing practices.