The October 25 issue of The NCAA News reported that the Division II Management Council discussion on the Pennsylvania State and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conferences' proposal to reduce Division II football equivalencies was "remarkably rancor-free given the depth of feeling that exists on the matter throughout the division."

The discussion, it was reported, focused on many of the forces affecting Division II that are out of its control.

As the chair of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Presidents Council, I would like to outline some of those "forces," the impact that they are having on higher education in America, what they suggest for the future of intercollegiate athletics and their influence. Football limits on our sponsorship of the football equivalency legislation.

Many of us agree fully with Roger Thomas, the University of North Dakota director of athletics, in his concern for Division II. We appreciate the difficult circumstances that led him to say: "I want to bring back hope that something can be done. I have been in Division II my whole life, and I see this as one of the most serious times ever."

These are indeed very serious times for higher education, and they present inextricable challenges for intercollegiate athletics.

Rarely has a week or month passed in recent years without news about the changing landscape of higher education. Inevitably the topic is the tenuous future of the nearly 150-year-old social compact that has made American public higher education the strongest and most affordable in the world. The fundamental premise of that important compact has depended on the ability, and the will, of states to provide sufficient state funding to hold down tuition prices. The infrastructure of the compact is cracking and the times are, indeed, serious -- as some of the following trends indicate.

A lead story in the October 29 Chronicle of Higher Education indicates that public colleges will see a 10 percent rise in tuition for 2004-05. The College Board reports in its Trends in College Pricing 2004 that over a 10-year period ending in 2004-05, average tuition and fees rose 51 percent ($1,725) at public four-year institutions. During the same 10-year period, private four-year colleges saw an increase of 36 percent ($5,321).

Public college and university tuition and fees are directly related to the level of funding provided by state governments. Tuition, in essence, tends to climb as state appropriations decline. Pressures on state social services, including Medicaid, corrections systems, and juvenile and justice systems, and a trend toward state revenue and spending limitations, have put serious constraints on higher education funding. It is a trend that many believe will continue and not revert to more revenue-rich decades in our states.

It is reported in Trends in College Pricing 2004 that over the past two decades, the percentage of public institutional revenues coming from state appropriations has declined from 50 percent in 1980 to 43 percent in 1990, and to 36 percent in 2000. Not surprisingly, the share of tuition and fees in overall revenues increased over that same period.

So, how does all of this relate to Division II athletics and more specifically to the question of equivalencies for football? California, home of two of the largest college and university systems in the world as well as the fifth largest economy in the world, offers some chilling examples of how the changing landscape of higher education affects intercollegiate athletics.

The Los Angeles Times reported (March 31, 2004) that most campuses in the University of California and California State University systems "are scrambling to maintain scholarship levels and avoid laying off coaches and other personnel." The article touches on the obvious "whipsaw" effect on scholarships when tuition increases and state appropriations decline. The institutional "cost" for scholarships increases as tuition rises, but less money is available from appropriations to meet the target.

Simultaneously, institutions are reducing academic offerings and programs. They are struggling to meet staffing and salary needs institution-wide. The chilling fact is that only one Division II football program remains in California. This is the current reality in the fifth largest economy in the world. The Times article suggests the economic realities may signal "the end of a golden age in intercollegiate athletics in California."

California is a case study of one, but it comprises an eighth of the United States population. So, considering the economic impacts of higher education funding on California can provide a snapshot of the landscape that lies ahead for others in the country.

Many of us in the West, and apparently elsewhere, are fearful of what the California case portends for future decisions. We are concerned about our ability to meet commitments to broad-based intercollegiate programs, including gender equity, during times of low appropriations and increasing tuition. While most all of us have greatly increased our efforts in private fund-raising, the fruits of our efforts often merely keep us even as the price of "equivalencies" rise and available subsidies for those equivalencies decline.

Those of us in the Pennsylvania State and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conferences, and I suspect many others, agree wholeheartedly with Roger Thomas' assessment that "this is one of the most serious times ever."

"However little we may like it," another member of the Management Council suggested, "the national picture has crept into everyone's life." The national picture for higher education suggests that we must think creatively about our priorities and how we will continue to make education and programs accessible in light of changing funding assumptions.

The intent of the PSAC/RMAC proposal is to make football a continued competitive and sustainable option for what appears to be an increasingly threatened number of Division II members. We understand the challenges to football at every level and believe that perhaps there is no better time to examine ways in which the future of football at all levels can be better secured. Currently, six of the 14 football-playing Division II conferences award fewer than 24 equivalencies. Four of those conferences average fewer than than 15 scholarships. These conferences and their member institutions believe as strongly in college football and the principles of Division II as those whose circumstances make possible much higher scholarship levels.

We recognize that the challenges facing us all are complex. The proposed RMAC/PSAC legislation to lower the ceiling on football equivalencies is brought before the membership for consideration as a strategy that begins to address a changing national picture that "has crept into everyone's life."

Jay Helman is president of Western State College of Colorado.