An expanded Division II Football Championship moved closer to the goal line October 21-22 when the Division II Management Council endorsed a plan to increase the event from 16 to 24 teams, effective with the 2004-05 academic year.

The recommendation now goes to the Division II Presidents Council for consideration October 31.

The Management Council approved almost all of the recommendations of the Division II Football Issues Project Team at its fall meeting, including bracket expansion, a study by the Division II Championships Committee to develop commensurate expansions of women's postseason opportunities, proposed changes to the Division II spring practice model and an educational initiative for out-of-season conditioning. The Council also approved 11 of 12 recommendations to change the Division II preseason practice model.

The gender-equity plan suggested by the Football Issues Project Team will keep postseason opportunities equal for men and women by adding about 250 female postseason opportunities.

To pay for the initiative, the Man-agement Council supported an adjustment of Division II's long-range financial plan to use the membership trust balance. Division II policy to this point has been to fund a membership trust at 25 percent of its annual revenue allocation as a rainy-day fund. However, the long-term contracts with CBS and ESPN make a "rainy day" unlikely in the short term, thus raising the possibility that the fund could be put to more active use and then replenished as the CBS and ESPN contracts expire in 2012-13.

The following table illustrates how the trust would be managed over the next decade if the Presidents Council agrees to the plan:

Trust

While the $5.1 million contribution to the membership trust for 2010-11 would be large, it would not affect any Division II championships, programs or distributions identified in the Division II long-range plan. The contribution for that year would be achieved by using the increased revenue from the television contracts and by tapping into unallocated resources.

Health and safety

The Management Council also approved most of the project team's recommendations relating to health and safety (see the October 14 issue of The NCAA News). The group approved all of the recommendations for spring practice and all but one of the proposed changes for preseason workouts.

The recommendation that was not approved states that: "In all preseason practice activities, a member of the institution's sports medicine staff (for example, athletic trainer, physician) shall be present with the unchallengeable authority to cancel or modify the workout for health and safety reasons."

Several Management Council members were concerned about the proposal on a variety of grounds. Some said that athletic trainers may not be comfortable with such power (they reported that some trainers have lost their jobs when they have exercised similar authority in other sports), that there may not be enough qualified trainers and physicians to cover concurrent sports with potential heat issues, that the word "unchallengeable" goes too far, and that the proposal would inappropriately remove the responsibility for conducting safe workouts from coaches.

Further, they also noted that the recommendation is taken from policies for conducting out-of-season workouts in which the involvement of coaches is prohibited. Critics of the proposed policy believe the same language is inappropriate for preseason practice since coaches are present.

Ultimately, the Council referred the issue to the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports. That group will discuss the issue further at its December meeting and will report back to the Management Council in January. The Management and Presidents Councils still will be in a position to approve emergency legislation on this issue in advance of preseason practice for 2003 should they choose to do so. The other 11 preseason practice model changes will be before the Division II football-playing institutions for a vote at the 2003 Convention, if the Presidents Council agrees with the Management Council recommendations.

The program to enhance safety awareness for out-of-season conditioning workouts will involve developing posters (for example, "Tips for Safer Two-a-Days," "Fluid Guidelines for Two-a-Days," "Managing Two-a-Days") at an annual cost of about $10,000.

A proposal to create a football highlights video (estimated cost: $50,000) was referred to the Division II Budget and Finance Committee.

Graduation rates

As expected, the Management Council approved a recommendation to conduct a second pilot study for an alternative Division II graduation-rate report.

The Council acted on the recommendation of the Division II Graduation Rates Project Team, which concluded that more information was needed before it could ask the membership to commit to developing a report that would measure graduation rates differently than the current report required by the Student-Right-to-Know Act (see the October 14 issue of The NCAA News).

Project team Chair Tony Capon, faculty athletics representative from the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, said the second pilot should provide better information about two-year and four-year transfers and walk-ons, an improved survey instrument and a better-timed response deadline (late spring rather than summer).

A key finding from the original pilot was that the graduation rate for the responding institutions unexpectedly went down when incoming transfer student-athletes were combined with student-athletes not receiving athletically related financial aid. The project team believes that the likely cause is that the two-year transfers are graduating at an exceptionally low rate, but without a second pilot, there is no way to make that determination.

"The project team has a charge to improve overall graduation rates in Division II," Capon said, "and to do that, we need to know where the problem areas are."

The Division II Presidents Council also must approve the second pilot study.

American Indian mascots

In other business, the Management Council reacted to a report from the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee (MOIC) regarding American Indian mascots and imagery (see the October 14 issue of The NCAA News).

The Management Council agreed that Division II institutions with American Indian mascots should be required to analyze whether the imagery is offensive as part of their periodic ISSG.

However, it agreed to advise the Presidents Council and Executive Committee that it opposes requiring conferences to review policies regarding competition with institutions using American Indian mascots or nicknames and requiring conferences to complete a self-analysis checklist for conference championship venues and host institutions.

The Management Council also voted to oppose proposals that would require the NCAA to establish criteria for NCAA championships sites and venues that would eliminate the visibility of American Indian mascots, logos and symbols; that would establish criteria for institutions participating in NCAA championship events to ensure adherence to NCAA principles involving student-athlete welfare, cultural diversity, gender equity, sportsmanship and ethical conduct, and nondiscrimination; and would eliminate references to American Indian mascot names, nicknames and logos in NCAA publications and announcements.

The Council also voted to oppose a MOIC position that the decision to award the 2005 Division II Men's Basketball Championship to the University of North Dakota (Fighting Sioux) should be rescinded. The Council believes that this position is inconsistent with the position taken by the Association for contracted events during the Confederate flag discussions.

Other highlights

Division II Management Council
October 21-22/Indianapolis