The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- October 12, 1998

Division II -- Management Council to focus on Convention issues

The Division II Management Council will devote much of its attention at its October 19-20 meeting to making certain that items of interest to the division are thoroughly discussed at the 1999 Convention in San Antonio.

For the second consecutive year, the legislative agenda for the Convention will be light. Only 23 Division II proposals appear in the Second Publication of Proposed Legislation, which was mailed to the membership in late September. In all likelihood, the legislative portion of the agenda will be completed the morning of Monday, January 11.

The Management Council will consider the recommendations of a project team that has been assigned responsibility for assuring that key topics and issues are addressed at the Convention.

A Division II issues forum likely will be scheduled for the afternoon of Monday, January 11. The Management and Presidents Councils will formally identify issues to be discussed at that forum at their October meetings, but one session that seems certain is a discussion on revisions to the Division II revenue-distribution formula.

At its August 11 meeting, the Division II Presidents Council stated its intention to revise the existing plan by October. Therefore, part of the issues forum (and possibly part of a chief executive officer luncheon that probably will take place Sunday, January 10) will be devoted to explaining the Presidents Council's decision.

In August, the Presidents Council expressed its preference for a revenue-distribution policy that rewards conferences with broad championships opportunities.

However, the presidents were concerned that certain conferences and institutions could suffer a significant adverse short-term financial impact with the change. It requested additional data on how much money would be required to alleviate that problem while giving some conferences a reasonable opportunity to expand their championships program. The Division II Management Council also will consider those data as part of its review of the Presidents Council's August actions.

At its October meeting, the Management Council also will review a report from the Division II Strategic Planning Project Team. That group has identified a list of 10 priorities that it believes should be priority items in Division II over the next three years. Within the next month, members will be asked through a questionnaire to react to those priorities. In addition, the project team will ask the membership about broad areas, such as the strengths and weaknesses of the division, current and future challenges, and how best to use Division II resources.

The project team expects to have the data analyzed by December and plans to make a presentation at the Convention.

In other business, the Division II Management Council will: