The NCAA Life and Work Balance Task Force held its inaugural meeting in Dallas August 21.

The task force, composed of presidents and chancellors, athletics administrators, coaches, and consultants, reviewed data from the 2006 NCAA Life and Work Balance Inventory and the Coaching and Gender Equity (CAGE) Project.

Of the more than 4,000 respondents to the NCAA survey, only 42 percent felt that they were balancing their current life and athletics commitments effectively. Forty percent disagreed. The CAGE report revealed that women working in intercollegiate athletics are 25 percent less likely to be married than their male counterparts. Many survey respondents estimate they work 55 or more hours each week.

With athletics events often occurring on nights and weekends, task force members addressed the need for day care options on NCAA campuses. Many institutions offer employees tuition waivers, and task force members questioned whether this money could be appropriated to day care instead. They also discussed the benefit of flexible hours during the traditional work day and the need for high-profile institutions to model the way in effecting change.

Traditionally considered an issue for female employees, task force members discussed how balancing work with a personal life affects both genders. Some members expressed concern that if the issues aren’t addressed in a timely fashion, many employees will leave the field of intercollegiate athletics.

The College Sports Television Network will broadcast via the Internet the September 9 football contest between Valdosta State University and Fort Valley State University as the first offering in a partnership with NCAA Division II.

CSTV will showcase more than 80 live Division II regular-season football andbasketball games during the coming year, including nine games on television and at least 72 games via the Internet.

The arrangement provides for 40 football games to be broadcast via broadband. Each week during a 10-week period, four games will be selected for Internet broadcast. There will be no subscription fee to view the games, which will be supported by Internet advertisers. The contests can be viewed at www.NCAA sports.com or www.CSTV.com.

Basketball broadcasts will begin January 7 and span eight week.

The NCAA and CSTV equally will share commercial revenue from the broadband package

CSTV earlier announced a three-game televised series of football matchups, beginning with a September 21 game between defending Division II champion Grand Valley State University and Michigan Technological University.

The NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules Committee has appointed Debbie Primeaux Williamson as secretary-rules editor.

Williamson, currently a lecturer in the physical education department at North Carolina State University, brings more than 25 years of experience in collegiate athletics as a student-athlete, coach, administrator, official and instructor. As secretary-rules editor, Williamson will be the national rules interpreter for women’s basketball and serve as co-editor of the Men’s and Women’s Basketball Rules and Interpretations book.

Her experience in the game dates to 1982, when she was a member of the Louisiana Tech University team that won the first Division I women’s basketball title. She was an assistant coach at Southeastern Louisiana University and Georgia Southern University.