The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- October 12, 1998

Division III -- Championships group prepares for automatic qualification

The Division III Championships Committee has forwarded recommendations to the Division III Management Council for consideration at its October 19-20 meeting in Indianapolis.

The Championships Committee has recommended that the Management Council and Presidents Council consider sponsoring a resolution to specify that, should the automatic-qualification legislation (1999 Proposal No. 2-45) be adopted, the Division III Championships Committee and governing sports committees will work together to clarify the policies and procedures that will be used to implement the revised principles for independent institutions and nonconference champions (that is, members of "Pool B" and "Pool C") in each team sport.

The committee, which met via conference call September 17, also suggested that the resolution include a specific deadline (June 1999, for example) for clarification of the details.

The committee has proposed this resolution, which would be an amendment-to-amendment, acknowledging that there are details that need to be solidified in each sport before the implementation of the new automatic-qualification principles. Some of those details cannot be resolved until the legislation is adopted and the implementation process is under way, and the committee wants to assure the membership that it will work with sports committees to resolve those issues in a timely manner.

The Championships Committee also recommended that the Management Council submit an amendment to the selection principles to clarify that selection of participants in Pool B and Pool C is to be based primarily on regional competition. The principles already specify that all members of a conference will be placed in the same region for selection purposes (subject to case-by-case exceptions).

In another action, the Championships Committee recommended that the Division III Management Council address the "Sunday competition issue" by sponsoring noncontroversial legislation to amend NCAA Bylaw 31.1.4.

The recommended legislation would specify that if a participating institution has a written policy against competition on a particular day for religious reasons, the championship schedule must be adjusted to accommodate that institution.

The proposed legislation also would establish a waiver opportunity for the requirement if the governing sports committee concludes that accommodating an institution's policy would unduly disrupt the orderly conduct of a championship.

Current legislation only provides adjustment of the schedule for Sunday competition and does not have a waiver provision.

The proposed change is similar to legislation recently adopted in Division I.