The Division III Championships Committee endorsed a recommendation to permit "walkthroughs" — one-hour, noncontact football practice sessions during the fall acclimatization period — during its June 26-27 meeting in Seattle.

The committee forwarded the recommendation by the Division III Football Committee for consideration by the Division III Management Council at its July 17-18 meeting in Dallas.

Football committee members recommended permitting walkthroughs during the five-day period after coaches said implementation of acclimatization in 2004 adversely impacted student-athletes’ preparation for the season by reducing teaching opportunities.

Under the proposal, student-athletes will not wear helmets or pads during walkthrough sessions, which would be limited to one one-hour period per day with no fewer than three hours of recovery time between regular practice sessions currently conducted during the acclimatization period.

Coaches have said that practice sessions occurring before the beginning of fall classes permit student-athletes to focus on instruction without distractions, and also have said that teams have lost as many as four practices with the implementation of the acclimatization period.

The Championships Committee, noting that Divisions I and II already have adopted the use of walkthroughs during the acclimatization period, recommended that Division III adopt the practice through noncontroversial legislation. The Management Council must agree that the measure is noncontroversial for it to become effective this fall. The Council’s playing and practice seasons subcommittee will review the recommendation July 16 before it is forwarded to the full Council for consideration.

Regions

Following up on action earlier this year that broadened opportunities for scheduling in-region contests, the Championships Committee also reviewed work by a project team that has been studying whether changes are needed in the composition of geographic regions.

Under the recent action, teams will be permitted to count games against other institutions in the same geographic region as in-region contests, in addition to games in defined sport-specific regions and games against institutions within a 200-mile radius of a campus.

The project team, which was formed by the Management Council in April and included representatives from the Division III Championships, Membership and Nominating Committees, has studied six possible alternatives to the current four geographic regions defined in Constitution Article 4.12 in the Division III Manual. The alternatives vary in such factors as number of regions, number of states included in each region, and number of schools in each region.

The Championships Committee, after considering one alternative approach in which Division III would be divided into three regions of about 140 to 150 institutions each, decided to support retaining the currently defined regions.

The project team will report on its work at this month’s Management Council meeting.

Championships sites

The committee also recommended that the Management Council approve several sites for future championships finals, including: