The Division III Membership Committee, responding to a recent Presidents Council request to consider ways of increasing institutions' commitment to athletics programs while regulating the division's growth, is proposing a formula to determine the minimum number of contests that must be played in each sport used to maintain membership.

The committee, which met June 23-24 in Indianapolis, asked the Division III Management Council to endorse proposed legislation for the 2006 Convention to adopt the formula, which would be applied beginning in August 2007.

Under the proposed formula, the average number of contests completed in a three-year period by Division III institutions in a sport will be calculated. Teams subsequently will be required to complete the equivalent of at least 70 percent of that number of contests to use the sport to meet membership requirements.

The proposal was one of several Membership Committee responses to ideas listed in April by the Presidents Council for consideration as part of the Future of Division III -- Phase II initiative. The committee also responded to two other ideas listed by the Council for further study: increasing minimum sports-sponsorship requirements and creating a Conference Self-Study Guide (CSSG).

Committee members expressed support for increasing minimum institutional sports sponsorship from 10 to 12 sports (six for men, six for women), with a delayed effective date and an exemption for schools with undergraduate enrollment of less than 1,000.

The committee, noting that the Division III philosophy statement stipulates that institutions "should encourage participation by maximizing the number and variety of athletics opportunities for their students," believes that sports sponsorship is a direct reflection of an institution's commitment to that broad-based philosophy. It indicated that increasing minimum sponsorship to six men's and six women's sports is more reflective of the division-wide average commitment of eight sports each.

It also noted that about one-fourth of the Division III membership has undergraduate enrollment of less than 1,000, and said exempting those schools recognizes that enrollment is an important factor in determining what constitutes a broad-based program.

The delayed effective date would give each of the approximately 30 schools that would be affected by a change time to prepare for its implementation. Division III voted in 1997 to increase the minimum number of sports from four each to five each, with a delayed effective date of 2001.

In April, the Presidents Council expressed a preference for retaining current sponsorship minimums, absent clear rationale that links a proposed increase to the division's philosophical principles and growth management.

The committee also indicated support for creating a CSSG as a tool to encourage review and discussion of institutions' reasons for belonging to a conference, and pledged to create a draft of the document for consideration at the 2006 Convention, if a proposal is sponsored there to implement the self-study guide.

The committee also discussed aspects of the four-year provisional membership process, including the possibility of accelerating that process for institutions that can demonstrate readiness for active membership in a shorter period of time.

Based on that discussion, the committee recommended shortening the process to three years for an institution that can present compelling evidence of its readiness at the end of its second year of provisional membership.

The committee listed criteria for consideration in deciding whether to waive the fourth year, including but not limited to:

• Meeting sports-sponsorship and other required sport minimums during the first two years of provisional membership, and generally meeting membership requirements.

• Successful completion of financial aid reporting, and completion of two years during which no athletically related aid is granted to student-athletes.

• Attendance at required events, such as the Convention and regional rules seminars.

• Successful completion of the Division III year-two campus visit.

• Evidence of establishment of a sound compliance system.

• Progress through the process without repeating either of the first two years of provisional membership.

The committee also conducted its annual review of 13 institutions currently classified as provisional members, and noted that at least five schools will be asked to repeat a year in the process, because of failures to meet minimum sports-sponsorship or sport-participation requirements.

In another action, the committee agreed to assign institutions to five-year "cohorts" for purposes of establishing deadlines for completion of the Institutional Self-Study Guide (ISSG).

As a result, about 20 percent of Division III members will be assigned to the first cohort and given a due date of June 2006 for completion of the ISSG, with other cohorts scheduled to complete the self-study in subsequent years. The plan permits institutions to know further in advance -- up to five years -- when its next ISSG is due.

Depending on its cohort assignment, an institution's next ISSG will be due sometime between four and six years following completion of its last self study.