Four of the six legislative proposals submitted by Division III members gained support from the Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which met July 21-24 in Boston.

The committee reviewed the six Division III proposals that were submitted for consideration at the 2001 Convention in Orlando, Florida, and supported all but two, including Proposal No. 1-7, which would eliminate "redshirting" in Division III by counting as a season of eligibility any athletics participation during or after the start of the first regular-season contest.

The group also was not in favor of Proposal No. 1-9 regarding practice and competition during the nontraditional segment. The proposal would permit schools to conduct practices supervised by coaches or captains (but not both) under specified conditions, but the Division III SAAC cited health and safety concerns as reasons for not supporting the concept.

Among the four proposals the committee did support was another nontraditional-segment concept -- Proposal No. 1-8, which would place playing and practice restrictions on the sports of baseball, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball and volleyball. The committee noted, however, that for baseball and softball, the proposal should be amended to reflect the Interpretation and Legislation Committee's recommendation of 40 contests in the traditional segment and five contests in the nontraditional segment.

The committee also supported two proposals dealing with first permissible practice dates, one in basketball (October 15) and another in football (the Thursday before Labor Day). In addition, the group supported Proposal No. 1-11, which permits the use of shoulder pads in football during the three-day noncontact conditioning period, as a student-athlete health and safety issue.

Besides a review of proposed legislation, the Division III SAAC also discussed the idea of regional leadership conferences for Division III, a concept that has been broached by the newly created Division III Initiatives Task Force.

Though only in the developmental stages, the idea is to provide more Division III student-athletes the chance to experience something similar to the NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference. The opportunity to attend a leadership conference is significant for the development of many student-athletes; proponents of the concept believe that Division III student-athletes will be more able to attend regional conferences and will benefit more from a program that is Division III-based.

During its discussion, the Division III SAAC developed various options, including a plan for two regional conferences -- one in the fall and one in the spring -- to be held on a four-region rotation schedule over a four-year period beginning in 2002. The conferences would be held during a three-day period, over a weekend, and would be available only to participants from Division III schools.

The SAAC also discussed an alternative option to hold two regional conferences simultaneously on the the first weekend in August, with SAAC members assisting in the operation of the conferences (half at one conference, half at the other).

The SAAC will forward its recommendations to the Division III Initiatives Task Force for consideration.

In other action, the Division III SAAC:

Selected Megan Stevens of State University College at Cortland as its new chair and Dewayne Barnes of Whittier College as its new vice-chair. Both terms are effective after the 2001 NCAA Convention.

Reviewed an effort to partner conferences together to enhance communication among Division III SAAC members between meetings. In conjunction with this partnership, a Division III SAAC e-mail listserve will be set up this fall to create a communications network of Division III student-athletes across the country.