In a climate that is full of challenges and issues, nothing jabs at the Division II super-ego quite as much as the lack of attention provided through newspapers, television and other media.

In January, the Division II Presidents Council chose to take more control of the situation by allocating funding to produce selected Division II championships events for broadcast. The money, which came from the 2003-04 Division II budget surplus, was made immediately available without any predetermined restrictions. It can be used for selection shows or to televise actual competition; it can be used to augment Division II events that already are on the air, or it can be used to create fresh opportunities. It can be used for championships that occur during this academic year or during the next one.

This development appears to be welcome in the Division II trenches, where administrators fight daily for attention in a field that already is crowded with telecasts and reportage of professional, intercollegiate and (increasingly) high-school sports.

Few, if any, Division II administrators have television aspirations that match those of their Division I counterparts. But they do believe that a degree of TV is necessary to make the public aware that entertaining options exist apart from Division I.

"We want to be able to showcase the product that we have...to show the public that Division II is a good, viable option for entertainment for people across the country," said Northeast-10 Conference Commissioner Dave Brunk, chair of the Division II Management Council's Identity Subcommittee. "This is a big step in educating the public about what we have to offer, which is competitive, clean, wholesome entertainment."

Efficient decisions

While the money has the potential to help, it will be useful only if it is expended wisely.

Some decisions already have been made. The money helped make selection shows for the men's and women's basketball championships available to more viewers than in previous years. Also, as a result of the new funding, the national semifinals of both the Division II men's and women's basketball tournaments will be available this year on cable -- the men on CSTV and the women on the newly created ESPNU.

Subsequent decisions about how to use the remaining money will be made carefully, with efficiency and previous experience serving as the primary guides. Efficiency may be especially important, given the budgetary constraints.

An example: With extra production money available, basketball's regional finals might have seemed a tempting target for television. The regional crowds can be good, and if the home team is still around for the final, the fans can be extremely enthusiastic, which makes for a superior television product. Moreover, the finals would be competing with the early rounds of the Division I basketball tournaments, rather than the regionals, as the Division II national semifinals will be.

"The problem with producing the basketball regionals is that your money would be gone, just like that," said NCAA Manager of Broadcasting Chris Farrow, snapping his fingers to make the point. For however many regional games were aired, Division II would have to provide for that many production trucks, that many production crews and that many sets of announcers. Such expenses add up quickly.

By working backward from the finals, the NCAA can take advantage of whatever production infrastructure may already be in place. With that in mind, it makes more sense to broadcast the national semifinals since the finals already were scheduled to be aired.

That approach has been used successfully in Division I, where all rounds of the Division I Women's Basketball Championship now appear on the ESPN networks. But the expansion was done in an orderly way -- working from the finals backward -- to make the most of what resources were already available.

That sort of expansion is becoming more common, especially as networks devoted to collegiate sports programming proliferate. In the 2003-04 academic year, a total of 347 events -- that is, finals, preliminary rounds and selection shows -- of NCAA championship competition were televised. However, as any Division II administrator will note, more than 90 percent of those telecasts pertained to Division I. In fall 2004, the number of championship telecasts increased from 36 to 42 (17 percent), including only three Division II events -- the Division II Football Championship game, a Division II football second-round game on Altitude Sports and Entertainment, and a Division II football selection special on ESPNews.

Indeed, no matter how much Division II interests may crave exposure, the networks crave profit just as much. They believe that the Division I events have more potential national appeal and are more salable.

Yet, Farrow said that Division II is doing exactly what it needs to do by providing production seed money. The approach, which is not unique to Division II, puts the networks in a position where they believe they have a chance to make money on the telecast.

"There are several Division I championships, including ice hockey, softball and women's volleyball, where production costs for early round telecasts are covered," he said. "With Division II, the networks can use that same model: 'If you cover the production costs, we'll get it on.'"

If the goal is to heighten exposure, it is a formula that can work well for all parties.

The approach eventually may complement one of Division II's primary initiatives: the national champion festival series. The fall 2006 National Championships Festival will feature six national championships in Pensacola, Florida, over a six-day period, seemingly providing Division II with a good opportunity to make the most efficient use of its TV money, assuming that the funding continues to be available that far out.

"The festival is a great event -- in fact, one publication rated it as the best such event in the nation last year," said Division II Vice-President Mike Racy. "If we have another surplus this year, and I believe that's likely, we may see if there is a way to take advantage of having so many different championships in the same locale at the same time in terms of television."

Local benefits

While the spirit of the funding decision was to get more championships on national TV, a more practical benefit may be experienced locally. That is because producing the events at all opens up myriad possibilities for syndication.

"When the men's basketball semifinals are produced for CSTV, the games also will be available to be sold locally," Farrow said. "That's a great opportunity for fans who don't have access to CSTV and who can't get to Grand Forks, North Dakota, for the Elite Eight."

Farrow said sales can be complicated by the fact that semifinal teams in Division II are not known until 18 or 24 hours before the games are played. Problems also can arise if the men's and women's teams from the same institution both reach their respective Elite Eights. However, he said the national office staff will work to make sure that broadcasters in various markets are aware of their options.

Another way to maximize exposure will be to use regional cable networks to the greatest advantage. As an example, the Division II men's and women's basketball selection shows were aired March 6 on Altitude Sports and Entertainment out of Denver. On the surface, that might appear to have limited exposure exposure to the Rocky Mountain region, except that Altitude is among the sports networks available on satellite networks such as DirecTV and Dish Network. So, instead of the show having been available just in the Denver region, it was accessible in 20 million households across the country, along with thousands of sports restaurants.

"This is a great service for Division II," Farrow said. "If you count the 64 teams that got into each tournament along with the teams on the bubble, there were about 150 teams and their fans that had a good reason to tune in." Moreover, Division II institutions were told beforehand that the programming was free for their campus cable systems, which made viewing parties possible across the nation.

Other broadcast options

Finally, not all broadcasts have to involve television.

Radio production is inexpensive by comparison, but the breadth of coverage can be impressive. Farrow said that an event such as the Division II Football Championship could be produced at a reasonable price and placed on as many as 100 stations through Westwood One. That is a potential boon to exposure, but it isn't likely to happen unless Division II covers the production costs.

"This is the way the system works," Racy said. "We feel like we have some products that might have more fan appeal than the networks might understand at the moment. Still, that is a premise that needs to be proved as far as the networks are concerned.

"In a perfect scenario, some of these events will succeed and the networks will want to produce them on their own in future years. But even if that's not the case, I think Division II will have a much greater opportunity to tell its story as a result of having made this commitment to produce these selected events."

The telling of the story, Brunk said, is where Division II needs to keep both of its eyes on the ball.

"There is evidence that more people are appreciating what we have to offer," Brunk said. "I don't know how many people noticed this, but in football in 2004, nine of our 13 conferences showed increased attendance. Attendance for our independents also went up. That's an encouraging statistic, one that is quite different from what was reported in Division
I-AA over the same period.

"I think there's something there, this realization on the part of the public that it can be entertained by different levels of competition. It's up to us to make everybody aware of what Division II has to offer and to motivate fans to see more games in person."