ORLANDO, Florida -- Division III headed toward a new financial aid compliance process for the future with several major decisions January 8 at the 2001 NCAA Convention.

Division III members also rejected a proposal to eliminate redshirting in the division.

Nontraditional seasons, a topic that was on the front burner last year, surfaced again this year in three proposals that would place limitations on playing and practice seasons in the nontraditional segment. This year, the membership found a compromise proposal to its liking, and it did place some limits on playing and practice in the nontraditional season in selected team sports.

The membership also addressed perceived abuses in the sports of softball and baseball by eliminating the legislation permitting regular-season baseball and softball tournaments to count as one contest.

Taking the first step toward a new financial aid compliance process, the membership overwhelmingly approved an amended version of Proposal No. 46, which simplified Bylaw 15 and eliminated the need for institutions to submit their awards of circumstance and nonathletics achievement awards to the NCAA. The proposal also confirmed that financial aid packaging for student-athletes must be consistent with financial aid packaging for students in general.

As amended by Proposal No. 46-1, the legislation will take effect August 1, 2002, permitting the Division III Financial Aid and Awards Committee to develop comprehensive compliance and enforcement processes and communicate the details to the membership.

The resolution also called for appropriate legislation regarding any compliance process to be forwarded to the Division III membership for consideration at the 2002 NCAA Convention.

"It's important that we have the time to develop an appropriate enforcement process," said Oscar Page, president of Austin College and a member of the Division III Management Council. "The committee needs that time to develop additional details, but then those details should be forwarded to the membership for consideration."

Redshirting

The topic of redshirting provided a lively discussion when the membership considered Proposal No. 47 from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The proposal would have eliminated the practice by specifying that any athletics participation -- either competition or practice -- after the first contest in the regular season or the nontraditional season would exhaust a season of eligibility.

Thomas Courtice, vice-chair of the Division III Presidents Council and the president of Ohio Wesleyan University, spoke on behalf of the Council, which favored the proposal.

"Delaying normal progress toward a degree for the purpose of redshirting is simply unacceptable in Division III," he said. "It is inconsistent with our Division III philosophy."

David Markee, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, Platteville, disagreed that student-athletes were using the practice for purely athletics purposes.

"We believe that the proposal is not in the best interests of student-athletes," he said, noting that many students now take longer than four years to graduate and that student-athletes typically have higher grade-point averages than non-athletes. "We encourage those students to compete and to decide when they want to compete."

Heather Gilmour, a Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee member and a field hockey student-athlete from the University of Southern Maine, presented the Division III SAAC's opposition to the proposal.

"We feel that, contrary to the stated rationale, redshirting is not purely an athletically focused act. The decision to remain in college for more than four years is the student-athlete's decision and financial responsibility."

Other delegates pointed to numerous nonathletics reasons for the practice, including nontraditional students, double majors and majors such as education, which may require a year of student teaching. Still others pointed to athletics participation (through practicing) as a means to help freshmen acclimate to the college climate and aid in retention for those individuals who might not attend college otherwise.

"If we truly believe that athletics is an integral part of the educational experience, why would we deny students the opportunity to participate?" asked Gary Karner, commissioner of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Others were concerned about compliance, while still others pondered the unintended consequence of the possible proliferation of sub-varsity teams. Ultimately, many delegates agreed that the choice was best left to students.

"I was troubled because the Presidents Council was for this legislation and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee was against it," said David Currey, athletics director at Chapman University. "So I called my president to discuss it with him, and he said, 'Listen to the students.' "

The proposal was defeated, 115-237-4.

Nontraditional-seasons compromise

Two proposals from the membership dealt with playing and practice seasons in the nontraditional segment. Proposal No. 48, brought by the Great Northeast Athletic Conference, sought to limit the nontraditional segment to four weeks and permit either supervised practices or "captain's practices," but not both, two days a week. The proposal also would have permitted only one day of competition each weekend during the nontraditional segment.

Proposal No. 48, which the Management Council, Presidents Council and Division III SAAC opposed, did not address the special needs of individual sports such as golf and tennis. Also of concern to many members were the possible safety concerns related to limited practice time, as well as liability concerns related to legitimizing so-called "captain's practices." The proposal was defeated, 34-322-0.

Proposal No. 50, brought by the New Jersey Athletic Conference, sought to place playing and practice limitations on the sports of baseball, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball and women's volleyball. It would not permit missed class time for competition during the nontraditional segment, and it also limited competition during the nontraditional segment to a maximum of five weeks. Additionally, it placed a maximum contest limitation of 45 in baseball and softball and permitted only five of those contests during the nontraditional segment.

"This is an attempt to propose reasonable limits in the nontraditional segment that we can all live with," said Ron Applbaum, a member of the Presidents Council and the president of Kean University. "I believe this proposal represents legislation a majority of the membership can and should support."

Kary Couchman, a softball student-athlete at Albion College, articulated the SAAC's view. "At the 2000 NCAA Convention, this committee stood in opposition to the elimination of competition during the nontraditional season," she said. "We feel that this proposal is a good compromise. It addresses the concerns raised last year by the Division III membership, while maintaining the importance of competition. In addition, the limitations placed on the listed sports maintain the nontraditional season as an integral part of the total educational experience, while allowing student-athletes the ability to reap the benefits of both competition and practice."

The proposal passed, 279-54-6.

In a related matter, Proposal No. 49, which sought to eliminate the two-for-one tournament exception in baseball and softball, also passed, 182-167-5. There was some confusion about a conflict between the intent statement and the actual legislation as it pertained to a possible limitation on the nontraditional segment in those sports. The intent statement indicated that the legislation also sought to limit to five contests (for a total of 45) those held in the nontraditional segment. However, the actual legislation did not clearly state that limitation of five in the nontraditional segment. The issue became moot with the subsequent adoption of Proposal No. 50.

A motion from Donna Ledwin, commissioner of the New Jersey Athletic Conference, to refer the proposal back to the Playing and Practice Seasons Subcommittee, failed, 140-212-3. Later, a motion to reconsider Proposal No. 49 during the window of reconsideration also failed, 151-168-3.

Ultimately, since the membership did pass both Proposal Nos. 49 and 50, the combined effect was to limit to five contests (45 total) the total number of nontraditional-segment contests in the sports of baseball and softball, while also eliminating the in-season tournament exception for those sports.

Other legislation

The membership defeated a proposal from the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to permit institutions to play their first football contest on the Thursday before Labor Day Weekend. The membership was not persuaded by arguments that the proposal would aid in scheduling.

The Presidents Council and SAAC, which spoke in opposition to the proposal, argued that it would extend the season and perhaps lead to institutions bringing student-athletes to campus earlier. The proposal, which could only be voted upon by institutions offering the sport of football, failed, 51-124-10.

Division III also decided against a proposal permitting the use of shoulder pads during the three-day noncontact conditioning period in football, reasoning that that action would actually increase contact and the likelihood of injury due to contact or heat exhaustion.

The membership also removed Proposal No. 73, which eliminated prohibitions on summer camp employment, from the package. The paddle vote on it was too close to call, so an electronic vote was necessary. That proposal ultimately was passed, 186-144-9.

In other legislative actions, the membership agreed to permit on-court preseason basketball practice to begin on October 15, and the delegates also passed legislation creating a Division III Women's Rowing Championship and a Division III Women's Ice Hockey Championship.

The membership also passed legislation creating a penalty for institutions that fail to meet the five-sport/three-season membership requirement, a requirement that was already scheduled to take effect August 1.

For a complete list of the action taken on all proposals considered by the Division III membership, refer to the legislative summary on page C12.