The Division III Presidents Council will oppose an effort at the 2007 Convention to place a cap on the size of the division, preferring instead to deal with membership growth through proposals of its own.

The Council decided during its October 26 meeting in Indianapolis to oppose a proposal by the North Coast Athletic Conference to cap the size of Division III at 459 members. It will seek instead to further limit acceptance of new members from what currently is permitted — to accept an average of only four new members annually — while also holding current members more accountable for compliance with Division III standards.

The presidents believe those proposals, combined with a current Division III moratorium on accepting new members, offer a more flexible yet effective way of controlling membership growth. Council members also said they would consider extending the moratorium — possibly into 2009 — to give the NCAA Executive Committee or another designated group time to propose legislative and structural solutions to concerns in all three NCAA divisions about membership growth or inter-division migration.

Later in the day, the Executive Committee agreed to create an Association-wide committee to specifically study two possible solutions — creation of a fourth division, or creation of a subdivision of Division III (see story on page 1). The committee, to be appointed by Executive Committee Chair Walter Harrison, will be asked to prepare concepts for discussion at the 2008 Convention, and any resulting legislative proposals probably would be considered in 2009.

Meanwhile, the Presidents Council’s proposals at the 2007 Convention would affect potential new members’ ability to join Division III not only by further limiting the number that would be accepted for membership annually, but also by requiring full compliance with all of the division’s regulations during the first year of provisional or reclassifying membership.

The Council also is proposing that current members be required to more actively demonstrate their commitment to Division III, through actions ranging from annual audits of compliance with sports-sponsorship requirements to requiring annual attendance by institutional personnel at the Convention and periodic attendance at regional rules seminars. Failure to meet such requirements ultimately could result in the loss of membership benefits.

Those proposals, as well as the NCAC’s membership cap proposal, will be on the agenda during the January 8 Division III business session at the annual Convention in Orlando.

In other actions on Convention proposals sponsored by Division III conferences, the Council decided to oppose a proposal to count the redshirt year of a student-athlete transferring from another division or association as a season of participation in Division III.

It also decided to oppose a proposal to permit student-athletes to practice during a sport’s nontraditional season without losing a season of participation, regardless of whether the nontraditional season is in the fall or the spring.

Last year, the Council supported an unsuccessful proposal to charge a season of participation to transfers who have redshirted. While discussing taking a similar position this year, however, members were persuaded that it is not appropriate to hold a student-athlete accountable for this Division III rule while attending a non-Division III institution.

This year’s proposal is sponsored by the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

In opposing the proposal addressing nontraditional season practice, Council members acknowledged that spring-sport student-athletes may have more opportunity than fall-sport student-athletes to practice during a year without losing a season of participation, but decided they are unwilling to support expanding practice opportunities after winning membership approval three years ago of a proposal to restrict nontraditional-season practice.

The Division III Management Council had asked the presidents to support the proposal, which is sponsored by the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Great Northeast Athletic Conference and Northwest Conference. The Management Council is concerned that student-athletes in spring sports generally can practice through much of the preceding fall nontraditional season without losing a season of participation, while student-athletes in fall sports generally are unable to participate in subsequent spring nontraditional-season practices without losing a season.

The Presidents Council agreed to direct relevant committees to better define the inequities under the current seasons-of-participation legislation and propose alternative solutions during the coming year.

The presidents also established a position on a fourth conference-sponsored proposal, to give Division III members flexibility to replace one of the two basketball practice scrimmages currently exempted from maximum contest limits with one exhibition contest against a Division I or Division II opponent.

Council members agreed to support the proposal, which is sponsored by the Ohio Athletic Conference, North Coast Athletic Conference and University Athletic Association.

In addition to formally taking positions on the membership-generated proposals, the Presidents Council again reviewed its own 10 proposals for the Convention — including the two proposals addressing new and current members.

Its only action resulting from that review was to determine the order in which those proposals and the four membership proposals — a total of 14 proposals — will be considered in Orlando. The Council also designated 12 of the 14 proposals for roll-call voting:

In order, the proposals designated for a roll-call vote would:

Specify institutional personnel who would be prohibited from engaging in sports wagering, including individuals outside the athletics department who have responsibilities within the department or who have supervisory responsibility over athletics (among others, the institutional president and faculty athletics representative).

Require the presence of at least one individual certified in first aid, CPR and AED use at practices, games, and strength and conditioning sessions involving student-athletes.

Require student-athletes to undergo a medical examination before participation in required conditioning, practice or competition, and require a student-athlete’s medical history to be updated during each subsequent year of participation.

Establish a limit of eight hours of athletically related activity during the one date of competition currently permitted during the nontraditional segment, along with sport-specific limits on the length of actual competition on that date in eight team sports: Baseball — 18 innings; field hockey — 140 minutes; men’s and women’s lacrosse — 120 minutes; men’s and women’s soccer — 180 minutes; softball — 21 innings; and volleyball — 15 30-point games.

Prohibit institutions from serving as host or sponsor of a tryout camp or similar events sponsored by a noninstitutional entity.

Limit the use of male practice players, specifying they may be used only during the traditional season and may participate in only one practice per week. The proposal also would limit the number of male practice players in team sports to no more than half of the number required to field a starting women’s team (for example, only two male practice players would be permitted in a sport with five starting players).

Count redshirting in another division or association as a season of participation.

Permit student-athletes to practice during a sport’s nontraditional season without losing a season of participation, regardless of whether the nontraditional season is in the fall or the spring.

Further limit the number of new Division III members and require full compliance with all of the division’s regulations during the first year of provisional or reclassifying membership.

Require current members to more actively demonstrate their commitment to Division III, through actions ranging from annual audits of compliance with sports-sponsorship requirements to requiring annual attendance by institutional personnel at the Convention and periodic attendance at regional rules seminars.

Establish a cap on the size of Division III.

Increase the number of institutions required to sponsor proposed legislation at the Convention, from the current eight institutions (about 2 percent of the membership) to 20 institutions or two voting conferences (3 to 5 percent of the membership).

Convention delegates also will be asked to vote on two other proposals:

A Council-sponsored proposal to eliminate the requirement that an institution must wait until after a student-athlete fulfills the one-year period of ineligibility for participation in gambling activities to submit a request for reinstatement.

The membership-sponsored proposal to give Division III members flexibility to replace one of the two basketball practice scrimmages currently exempted from maximum contest limits with one exhibition contest against a Division I or Division II opponent.