The recent report of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics has been a hot topic in college sports circles, but its content has left the Division II Presidents Council concerned.

At its August 9 meeting in Indianapolis, the Presidents Council discussed the report, expressing disappointment that the Knight Commission painted an unfair picture of intercollegiate athletics by focusing almost exclusively on problems facing revenue sports in Division I.

The Council felt strongly enough that it forwarded the following statement to the NCAA Executive Committee:

"The Division II Presidents Council expressed great concern about the 2001 Knight Commission report, specifically noting the lack of a Division II president on the Knight Commission. In addition, the report paints a broad picture of intercollegiate athletics while focusing on issues associated mainly with Division I-A football and basketball.

"The Division II Presidents Council strongly believes that had the Commission looked at intercollegiate athletics in its entirety, it would have found that many of the recommended actions called for in the report already were occurring in Division II."

Patricia P. Cormier, president of Longwood College and chair of the Division II Presidents Council, said that the Knight Commission report overlooked the results of effective presidential leadership in Division II.

"Since the NCAA restructured in 1997," she said, "Division II has taken many bold steps on behalf of student-athletes. The most notable of those was the amateurism package that we approved at the Convention this past January. I personally worked with our Student-Athlete Advisory Committee when that legislation was under review, and I can say with certainty that our students joined our presidents and athletics administrators in believing that the Division II approach to amateurism is good for student-athletes both athletically and academically.

"This philosophical change involving amateurism was as significant as any that I have seen in my years of working with college athletics, but it was not cited anywhere in the Knight Commission report."

The Knight Commission report also emphasized the excessive time demands that are made of student-athletes but did not note Division II legislation likely to be approved in January that would further limit in-season practice time for dual-sport athletes, that would prohibit missed class time for competition in team sports in nontraditional seasons and that would limit the amount of time that can be devoted to exempted scrimmages.

The presidents also pointed to other examples of progress, including the establishment of a project team to review Division II graduation rates, implementation of a $1 million annual grant program to enhance the academic success of Division II student-athletes, ongoing examinations of initial- and continuing-eligibility requirements, the establishment of degree-completion awards and changes in Division II championships policy that have led to equitable participation opportunities for male and female student-athletes.

Besides being concerned about what it considered to be an overly broad and damning portrayal of college athletics, the Division II Presidents Council questioned two key Knight Commission proposals: the creation of a Coalition of Presidents and the implementation of an Institute for Intercollegiate Athletics. The Presidents Council voiced a strong belief that the NCAA is the structure through which college athletics issues should be addressed.

In that regard, the presidents pointed to a statement by Constantine Curris, president of the American Association of State Universities and Colleges. "Those two entities, if established, would essentially undercut the established NCAA (and possibly the NAIA) governance structures," Curris wrote in an article that appeared in the July 30 issue of The NCAA News (a similar message from Curris also was circulated among college and university presidents). "The writers of the report deny such intent, but there is no question in my mind, and in that of several colleagues, that the creation of a new entity will have the impact of pitting one presidential group (formed from an athletically narrow, but influential group of institutions) against a recently established council of presidents representing all conferences and athletics groups."

Other business

Beyond the discussion about the Knight Commission report, the Presidents Council conducted a routine meeting at which it supported all legislative recommendations that had been forwarded from the Management Council.

In particular, the presidents supported all eight proposals in the Bylaw 17 deregulation package, along with nine proposals developed by the Membership Review Project Team. Of the 33 proposals that it is expected to sponsor at the 2002 Convention, the only change involved the addition of language to an amendment to Bylaw 14.4.3.3.5 to specify that distance-learning courses may be used to meet satisfactory-progress requirements as long as the course is taken at an accredited institution and the certifying institution accepts the course as transferrable degree credit.

The Presidents Council also approved a Management Council recommendation to establish a one-year pilot program for year-round drug testing in Division II baseball. The testing will be done to collect data about drug use in baseball and will be done in a way that involves no additional cost. No penalties will be applied to any baseball student-athlete who tests positive since the purpose of the tests is only to gather information.

On another drug-testing matter, the presidents referred back to the Championships Committee a proposal to discontinue the practice of announcing that drug testing will occur in advance of a championship event. The Division II Management Council supported the recommendation, developed by the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, but it was defeated in Divisions I and III.

Other highlights

Division II Presidents Council
August 9/Indianapolis

Approved a recommendation to conduct educational presentations regarding homophobia at meetings of all three division Management Councils, at the 2002 NCAA Convention, at the annual NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference and at the annual joint meeting of the three Student-Athlete Advisory Committees.

Approved a recommendation that each of the 10 golf regions select eight teams and five individuals to participate in regional competition and that two neighboring regions combine at one site (each region would retain its own number of berths for the finals site).

Allocated money for a Division II championships pilot promotions program for 2002-03 as follows: men's and women's soccer, $10,000, contingent upon the championships being conducted at a common, predetermined site; men's and women's track and field, $10,000; women's basketball, $30,000; and football, $30,000.

Appointed a project team to examine Division II graduation rates. Members will be Nancy Belck, University of Nebraska, Omaha; J. Anthony Capon, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; Clyde M. Doughty, New York Institute of Technology; Pam Gill-Fisher, University of California, Davis; Joan McDermott, Metropolitan State College of Denver; W. Clinton Pettus, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania; and Valerie Sheeley, Presbyterian College.

Elected new members to the Division II Presidents and Management Councils (see related story).

Received a report from the NCAA public relations staff and the Fleishman-Hillard public relations firm about the NCAA public affairs plan.

Approved a Division II budget of $15.4 million for the 2001-02 academic year.

Approved a set of guiding principles for reviewing conference grant requests.

Agreed to establish a Division II Football Issues Project Team.

Approved an annual limit for provisional membership classes (about 10 annually with about 40 in the process at any time) and a system for selecting conferences and independent institutions seeking to become provisional members.

Approved the schedule for the 2002 Convention in Indianapolis.

Agreed to sponsor legislation for the 2003 Convention to clarify the role of the senior woman administrator in Division II.

Approved up to $15,000 to fund production of an education video to explain the role of the senior woman administrator and how Division II institutions may enhance the position.

Presidents Council statement

The text of a statement from the Division II Presidents Council to the NCAA Executive Committee:

"The Division II Presidents Council expressed great concern about the 2001 Knight Commission report. Specific concerns included that there was no Division II representation during the Knight Commission discussions and, as a result, the report paints a broad picture of intercollegiate athletics while focusing on issues associated mainly with Division I-A football and basketball.

"The Division II Presidents Council strongly believes that had the Commission looked at intercollegiate athletics in its entirety, it would have found that many of the recommended actions called for in the report already were occurring in Division II.

"Examples include:

Division II college presidents, faculty, athletics administrators, conferences and student-athletes are working together to ensure that student-athlete welfare is the division's top priority and it is expected that athletics departments and student-athletes are held to the same standards as the rest of the university. This is continually exhibited in Division II's success in its deregulation efforts, including deregulating our amateurism legislation to promote competitive equity and student-athlete welfare.

Division II is committed to the academic success of its student-athletes. Under the division's long-range financial plan, we have implemented a degree-completion program, allocated more than $1 million for an academic-support grant program and recently established a project team to look at the method by which graduation rates are calculated for the federal report and to determine whether it accurately reflects the graduation rates of Division II student-athletes."

Division II 2001-02 approved budget

Revenue:

-- Division II application fee -- --

Prior year unallocated funds (estimated for 2001-02) -- 6,185,084

Expenses:

-- Total championships expense -- 10,463,073

-- Division II Enhancement Fund -- 3,600,000

-- Diversity Matching Grant Program -- 250,000

-- Presidents/Management Council contingency fund -- 100,000

-- Deregulation Summit -- --

-- Long-range plan strategic initiatives (new) -- 596,000

-- Membership Trust (Note 1) -- 272,000

-- Contribution to support overhead costs for championship new intiatives -- 122,165

-- Contribution to support overhead costs for long-range new intiatives -- 24,000

Total Division II Expenses -- 15,427,238

-- Division II cumulative surplus (Note 2) -- 5,410,846

Division II projected unallocated funds available for strategic initiatives -- 5,410,846

2002-03 cumulative long-range plan strategic initiatives-$1,550,000-new (Note 3) -- 3,000,000

-- 2003-04 cumulative long-range plan strategic initiatives-$1,050,000-new (Note 3) -- 3,990,000

-- 2004-05 cumulative long-range plan strategic initiatives-$850,000-new (Note 3) -- 4,840,000

-- Total long-range plan strategic initiatives -- 11,830,000

Membership Trust balance (Note 1) -- 4,396,000

Note 1: The membership trust balance equals 30 percent of the division's revenue allocation.

Note 2: This amount reflects the current year revenue plus any prior year unallocated less the current year expenses.

Note 3: The cumulative long-range plan strategic initiatives amounts do not include Division II's contribution to support overhead costs.