allocating about $300,000 to that effort during 2006-07.

In April, the Presidents Council delayed action on a recommendation to create a pilot drug-testing program involving as many as 200 institutions, saying it needed more information about potential costs while expressing interest in further exploring educational options.

The Management Council reviewed additional student-athlete research data and also solicited feedback from the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which responded with support for both education and drug testing, saying testing is the best way to level the playing field by deterring substance use and to foster student-athlete well-being.

SAAC representative Heather Mathis told Council members that student-athletes believe far more student-athletes use steroids and other performance-enhancing substances than have admitted to doing so in NCAA drug-use surveys.

She said student-athletes have reported that competitors use substances outside of the playing season — which current testing at Division III championships is unlikely to reveal — and they also believe a segment of student-athletes consciously discontinue use of marijuana when they anticipate they will qualify for championships competition.

Other SAAC members expressed similar views during a July 15 meeting with Management Council members that covered a range of topics, including drug education and testing.

"If student-athletes believe nearly half of their competitors use performance-enhancing drugs, that’s a problem, particularly when the best available research would suggest use rates of around 2 percent in the worst of the sports," said Michael Miranda, Management Council chair and faculty athletics representative at Plattsburgh State University of New York.

The Management Council endorsed conducting survey research at institutions participating in the pilot program to gain some sense of usage by student-athletes and to measure the impact of educational and testing efforts.

"We won’t know how much deterrence we have until we know the conditions that exist before the deterrence," Miranda said.

In addition to the pilot education and testing program, efforts targeting the entire Division III membership also were proposed by the NCAA staff.

"Much can be done educationally without additional funding," Mary Wilfert, NCAA associate director of education outreach, told Council members. She said the staff would more aggressively encourage institutions to develop written policies on alcohol, tobacco and other drugs; publicize the NCAA banned-drugs list and other informational resources; and promote Division III institutions’ access to such programs as the Association’s health and safety speakers grant program and the APPLE conferences that the NCAA supports in cooperation with the University of Virginia.

"One option would be to devote additional funding to increase Division III’s use of existing programs," Wilfert suggested. Council members responded by supporting funding for educational efforts in addition to the pilot program through the Division III strategic initiatives grant program.

The Presidents Council will consider the proposed pilot education and testing program at its August 3 meeting in Indianapolis.

• Rejected a recommendation originating from the Division III Football Committee and supported by the Division III Championships Committee to adopt noncontroversial legislation permitting "walkthroughs" during the five-day acclimatization period in football. After consultation with the Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and discussion of the request, the Council determined that approval of walkthroughs is not a noncontroversial action. It requested additional data from the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports to assess whether changes to the current Division III acclimatization model are appropriate, and also requested more information about one-hour walkthroughs currently permitted in Divisions I and II.
• Approved opponents’ average winning percentage as a criterion to be used along with opponents’ opponents’ average winning percentage to replace the "quality of wins" index, effective in 2007-08.
• Accepted recommendations of sites for future championships finals in women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, women’s lacrosse, and wrestling (see the July 17 issue of The NCAA News).
• Endorsed a recent decision by the Division III Financial Aid Committee to employ three new filters — in addition to the 4 percent variance threshold used by the committee last year — that could require an institution to justify aid awarded to student-athletes who enrolled for the first time during 2005-06 (see the July 3 issue of The NCAA News).