The new rule requiring men's college basketball exhibitions to be played between NCAA member institutions appears to have had the positive effect of Division I schools lending a helping hand to their Divisions II and III neighbors.

Before this season, Division I institutions could host preseason exhibition games against noncollegiate teams assembled by shoe companies, video game makers, AAU programs, religious-based organizations or foreign national teams. While that provided quality competition in many cases, it often put coaches in an ethical dilemma.

University of Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson said at the time it was becoming an "alarming trend" for coaches to recruit from certain AAU programs that put together impromptu exhibition teams.

He said a typical scenario might have been for the club program to tell a coach that if he wanted to recruit a certain player, then he would have to play that AAU team. Sampson said it was almost as if some club owners were holding coaches hostage.

Division I became concerned enough with the practice that members passed legislation effective this year that precludes exhibition games against noncollegiate teams.

Now, Division I programs are putting the guarantees previously pocketed by the club teams into the pockets of Divisions II and III schools.

"Once these games became available, we began planning,'' said Linc Darner, the coach at Division II Saint Joseph's College (Indiana). "We're going to take a trip next year to play two games in Hawaii before Christmas. Without these games, we wouldn't be able to do that. Hopefully in the future, we'll be able to do something else where every couple of years we can take our guys out to Hawaii or Las Vegas or go down in Florida to play in some kind of tournament. We can go get competition that we don't get every year. We can go play somebody different.''

Popular opportunity

Division II institutions can play up to three exhibition games. Saint Joseph's (Indiana) used its allotment to travel to the University of Notre Dame, Butler University and Purdue University.

Saint Joseph's is a member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference, which has had a member of its league in the NCAA Division II championship game for the last 11 years.

Teams from the GLVC played exhibitions against the University of Illinois, Champaign; the University of Georgia; the University of Kentucky; the University of Louisville; and the University of Cincinnati, among others.

 "I had the opportunity to go up to Notre Dame when Quincy University played there and had a chance to speak with a couple of folks,'' said GLVC Commissioner Jim Naumovich. "(Notre Dame Athletics Director) Kevin White told me from a Division I perspective they found it to be a great value. They were playing against quality competition, and it was good preparation for their team in getting ready for the season.

"I also was speaking to the editor of Blue & Gold Illustrated, and he was very interested to find out more about our conference. It's led to some discussions and led to more questions and having a better appreciation for the quality of basketball in Division II.''

Other GLVC coaches also believe the new opportunity to play against Division I teams is a win-win situation.

"It was a tremendous experience for our university and the kids in our program,'' said Quincy coach Marty Bell. "We were able to evaluate ourselves against better competition. When you do that, it's beneficial to both sides. We came into their gym with a system and an organized team. That's some of the things you don't get with some of those other teams they could play (before). When our team gets down 10 or 15 points, we fight back. We don't just go play the next one on the next day. That's the feedback I got from the (Division I) coaches.''

All win, no loss

Besides playing at Notre Dame, Quincy also played exhibitions against Bradley University and Western Michigan University.

"We played hard the whole time, and anytime you want to get better, you have to play better competition,'' Bell said. "I applaud the NCAA for the fact we have NCAA institutions giving back to other NCAA institutions in the form of guarantee money. I think that's a huge benefit to Division II. I get a great experience, I get a budget enhancer and I don't get a loss. That's a pretty good deal. I made $20,000 off those three games, and I came out 0-0.''

 In years past, Division II institutions would have the opportunity to play some exhibitions against Division I competition, then fill the remainder of their preseason slate by paying teams such as those affiliated with EA Sports, Reebok or Nike $1,000 to come play in their gymnasiums.

From a financial perspective, the new rules prohibiting exhibitions against non-collegiate competition makes the decision of accepting guaranteed paydays an easy choice for Division II institutions.

Plus, many of the Division II student-athletes haven't played in venues quite like the ones they had a chance to compete in now.

"The Joyce Center (Notre Dame), Hinkle (Butler) and Mackey Arena (Purdue) are three great places to play a college basketball game,'' Darner said. "We're going to see some great competition in our league, and it will get us prepared for that. It got not only our school but our players a lot of exposure from playing in those games. We got more press coverage than we're used to and we got some television coverage as well.''

On the Division I side, the arrangement looks bright for the future.

"To me, this is a way to support Division II and provide them with some financial support for their programs,'' said Purdue Athletics Director Morgan Burke. "In our case, it allowed us to play Washburn (University of Topeka), which has been a very well-respected Division II power for years. We played Saint Joseph's, and Linc Garner played for (Purdue coach) Gene Keady. They were two good exhibitions.

"The caliber of the effort for an exhibition game seemed better to me. I also know the guarantees they were paid are a huge help to those programs.''