How should Division II regard its current review of membership criteria?

The matter is so broad that almost any institution can find something it doesn't like. When changes in sports-sponsorship and financial aid requirements are under consideration, not everybody will come away happy about everything.

This review, however, is something we need to do as a division, not as 295 different institutions. We need to understand what is at stake and why we have initiated the work being undertaken by the Division II Membership Review Project Team. After we all have taken time to study the matter, I hope most of us can conclude that the best interests of Division II and our individual institutions are much the same.

Over the next few years, Division II must have an ordered plan for managing membership growth. This is not an abstract notion. As our membership standards are written at the moment, Division II membership could appeal to Division III institutions that do not offer athletically related aid but want to sponsor only eight sports, rather than the 10 that will be required for Division III membership beginning this fall. NAIA member institutions also could find Division II membership appealing once our membership moratorium expires.

The good news is that we can make constructive change in the most important areas -- sports sponsorship and financial aid -- without adversely affecting our existing membership. Consider this information:

Of 274 NAIA institutions, 198 meet current Division II sports-sponsorship requirements (four men's and four women's sports).

Only 12 NAIA institutions are nonscholarship in all sports. Therefore, a total of 186 NAIA schools meet current Division II sports-sponsorship requirements and offer athletically related aid in at least one sport.

which is the requirement recommended by the Membership Review Project Team.

In 1999-00, 43 institutions requested Division II provisional-member applications before the membership moratorium was approved in April 2000. Of those 43 institutions, only 25 sponsor at least 10 sports (we don't know how many of those 25 also would meet a minimum financial aid requirement).

There are 27 Division III active and provisional member institutions that do not meet Division III's new 10-sport minimum requirement.

There are 295 active and provisional member institutions in Division II. Of that number, only 27 active and provisional institutions in Division II sponsor both four men's sports and four women's sports. Of those 27, nine are provisional members.

Only three existing Division II members would not satisfy at least one component of the new minimum financial aid rule recommended by the project team. Of those three, one is a provisional member that is considering adding aid; one is an institution that recently reclassified from Division III; the other member is one that awards a significant number of Pell Grants.

All of those facts should help to illustrate both the potential problems we face and the solutions that are available to us. In short, we need to change our standards so that they reflect the commitments of our current membership.

Those of us who are members of the Division II Membership Review Project Team encourage our membership to track this issue closely and to take advantage of the various discussions that will occur on this topic between now and the January Convention.

We have an opportunity during the moratorium to make changes to Division II membership requirements that will have a minimal impact on current members but that will significantly strengthen the commitment that prospective NCAA institutions must demonstrate before they join Division II.

If at the 2002 Convention we take the simple step of adjusting our membership standards in an appropriate way, we will do no harm to our current membership and will do a great service for the Division II of the future.

Barbara J. Schroeder is the athletics director at Regis University (Colorado) and is a member of the Division II Membership Review Project Team.