An interesting part of the Division II Conference Commissioners Association corporate-marketing plan has to do with television.

If Kelly Press can create enough sales from corporate sponsorships -- probably $4.5 million or more -- then the CCA can move forward with plans to create a weekly syndicated television program highlighting activities within the division.

"A television show would be produced by Urban Sports, which does production for the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association," said Jim Johnson, associate athletics director at Central Missouri State University. "They would syndicate it on regional outlets like Fox Sports Southwest or Fox Sports Northwest. It would basically be a 22-minute show, split evenly between national news about Division II and regional news and scores."

While the concept of a national, division-specific show is intriguing, it may not be as interesting as what Division II is not pursuing: live television programming, as in a Division II "Game of the Week."

"I think that's down the road," said Bob Hiegert, commissioner of the California Collegiate Athletic Association. "Once we get the identity level raised, we can do regional telecasts, as well as national telecasts. I think that has some merit. But initially, it would be the wrong direction to go."

That represents something of a counter-to-the-flow attitude during a time in which live television exposure is commonly regarded as essential to the growth of any national sports enterprise. But the Division II commissioners clearly believe that a foundation needs to be built before they ask the public to buy into live programming. To do otherwise, they believe, would expose them to unwise financial risk.

"When you talk about a football game of the week in even just four different regions, the production costs to do four games on the same night is really expensive," Johnson said. "Eventually, we want to get this regional appetite to where people want to televise these games."

Hiegert said the complication rests in the fact that Division II is creating a television philosophy from scratch.

"The package is no different than if all of television in Division I was going to be focused on each single event," Hiegert said. "I think you would have the same arguments coming forth from Division I or Division III as we're saying about Division II. We need more of a saturation as opposed to just focusing on one or two teams."

The Urban Sports program would be the first course in building the public's appetite.

"Half of the program would be a national show in terms of what's happening in Division II, and pretty topical to the sports that are going on," Hiegert said. "If it's basketball season, the conversation would be largely about basketball. Special interests on a national level -- like Division II's relationship with Make-A-Wish -- could be highlighted in that segment.

"The last half of the program would be specific to particular regions. It's been divided up into the eight basketball regions, so the West 10-minute segment might be a bit different than the South Atlantic's or the North Central's because we may be focusing on different sports. But it'll give a tie locally and a tie nationally to what's been occurring in Division II."

Hiegert said the commissioners also have talked with Urban Sports about, if time permits, focusing on different conferences from segment to segment. "So, for instance, the MIAA would be so-and-so week and you would have a promo on the conference and what it was doing that would provide recognition for the area, both locally and nationally."

While Hiegert believes that Division II should be conservative in its approach to regular-season television, he would like to see more done to get Division II national championships on the air.

"I would like to see better exposure of our championships events on television," he said. "It is something that's merited because those are the pinnacle events of our sports, and the more of those that we get on, the more credibility we have with the viewing public."

For 2003-04, Division II live championships telecasts included football (ESPN), men's and women's basketball (CBS and ESPN2), and men's and women's lacrosse (CSTV).

"The programming is very select with regard to Division II," Hiegert said. "I personally think that needs to be expanded and encouraged to be expanded so that our product is out there. Let the viewers determine what their wishes are, not a programmer."